Gladiator Resources Ltd (ASX: GLA) has elected not to proceed with its proposed acquisition of the Highgate Vanadium project located near Mt Isa in Queensland due to market uncertainty.
In January 2020, the company entered into a binding Share Sale Agreement with Vecco Group to acquire all of the issued shares in NQ Utah Pty. Ltd, owner of the Highgate Vanadium project.
The agreement was subject to conditions precedent including shareholder approval which were required to be satisfied by the sunset date of April 11, 2020.
The company said that in view of current uncertain market conditions and inability to obtain approvals by the required date, the parties have mutually agreed not to extend the sunset date further and have terminated the agreement.
The company said it has decided to focus on its preferred commodity, gold, after it recently moved to acquire two promising Victorian gold exploration projects to sit alongside its Marymia gold project in Western Australia.
Executive Director, Ian Hastings, said the company believes in the current uncertain environment that focusing on Australian gold opportunities is a preferred strategy.
The Highgate Vanadium Project is located approximately 60km North West of Julia Creek in the Mt. Isa mining province, in close proximity to the large scale Debella and Arizona Vanadium projects and Rio Tinto Exploration tenements. The project comprises the Licence which was granted in March 2016 for an initial 5-year term and covers an area of 220 sq. km.
Previous drilling on the Licence site has focused on the formation which hosts the vanadium mineralisation and has established a large vanadium exploration target.