History
Golden Star bid for IAMGold, bought St. Jude, refinanced its debt twice, and by mid-2013 was cutting costs at its Ghana mines before delisting in 2022.
2004-2005: A bid and a first acquisition
Golden Star's record opens in 2004 with an attempt at a big merger. In May it announced a proposed combination with IAMGold and disclosed an agreement with Coeur d'Alene Mines. If both companies' deals completed and both break fees were payable, the fees would be netted so that Coeur d'Alene paid Golden Star US$26 million. In June it filed to register up to 180,000,000 new shares for an offer of 1.15 Golden Star shares per IAMGold share, which it said was better than IAMGold's proposed combination with Wheaton River. On July 1 it raised the offer: holders could choose 1.25 shares, or 1.15 shares plus Cdn$0.50 in cash. The maximum number of shares registered rose to 195,652,174. The offer was to stay open until July 16, 2004. The record does not show how it ended.
In April 2005 the company sold $50 million of convertible notes to a single investor. The notes ran four years, paid 6.85% interest and converted into shares at $4.50. In September it agreed to buy St. Jude Resources at 0.72 Golden Star share per St. Jude share. That deal closed on December 21, 2005, and St. Jude became a wholly owned subsidiary. The same day Golden Star agreed to sell 29,200,000 new shares at Cdn$2.80 each.
2006-2007: Restatements and refinancing
The next two years were dominated by accounting corrections. In March 2006 the company said its first three 2005 quarterly reports would be restated, because gold forward contracts at its roughly 53%-owned subsidiary EURO Ressources did not qualify for hedge accounting. In February 2007 it said that its earlier US GAAP reconciliations, covering 2001-2005 and the first three quarters of 2006, wrongly treated Canadian-dollar warrants as equity. In March 2007 it restated the first three 2006 quarters again, after errors in valuing in-process inventory at Bogoso-Prestea. Restated nine-month 2006 net income was $33.9 million, against $36.4 million first reported.
Operations and finances moved on regardless. For 2006 the company reported reserves of 4.15 million ounces and gold sales of 201,407 ounces at an average cash operating cost of $421 an ounce. EURO Ressources ceased to be a subsidiary after share sales in December 2006 and 2007 left Golden Star with about 2%. Newmont could earn up to 51% of the Saramacca project in Suriname. In late February 2007 Golden Star agreed to sell 21,000,000 shares at US$3.60, raising $75.6 million gross.
In October 2007 it reported a third-quarter net loss of about $13.4 million and said the first quarter of commercial production at the Bogoso sulfide plant had throughput and recovery below expectations. It agreed to redeem the 6.85% notes early for US$61.76 million, and in November completed a US$125 million private placement of 4.0% convertible debentures due November 30, 2012, convertible at $5.00.
2009-2012: Fresh money and a debt swap
In May 2009 Golden Star took out a US$30 million revolving loan from Standard Chartered Bank, secured on inventory, receivables and other assets. In December 2009 it agreed to sell 20,000,000 shares at $3.75, for net proceeds of $71.6 million. Shares on issue were then roughly flat at about 258 to 259 million from 2010 to 2013.
In May 2012 the company published its own preliminary economic assessment of the West Reef area of the inactive Prestea Underground mine. It estimated 508,000 ounces of Indicated and 190,000 ounces of Inferred resource, up to 97,000 ounces a year, about $115 million of capital and a post-tax value of $107 million at $1,500 an ounce. The company stressed the study was preliminary. The board told management to proceed to a full feasibility study. A feasibility study by SRK was filed in July 2013, but its results are not in the record.
On May 31, 2012 Golden Star swapped $74.51 million of its 2012 debentures for $77.49 million of new 5.00% convertible debentures due June 1, 2017, convertible at $1.65 a share. About $50.5 million of the old debentures stayed outstanding, which the company planned to repay in cash. The swap pushed most of the debt's due date out to 2017, but the much lower conversion price means conversion would create more shares.
2013-2022: Cost cuts and delisting
On June 18, 2013, Golden Star cut its 2013 gold production guidance to 290,000-310,000 ounces, about 10% lower, after redesigning its pits for lower gold prices. Cash operating costs were still expected at $1,050-$1,150 an ounce. It cut capital spending to about $74 million and exploration to $16.5 million, and targeted about $45 million of operating cost savings. Cash was about $51 million. The company said operations remained viable at current prices. It had also moved its head office to Toronto, with Sam Coetzer as President and CEO and Jeff Swinoga as CFO.
The record then goes quiet for years. Share counts in the feed show 335,356,450 at the end of 2017 and 108,819,009 a year later, but no story beat explains the change. In January 2022 the company's exchange filed to remove a class of its securities from listing, and in February 2022 Golden Star deregistered its securities, ending its obligation to file reports with the SEC.
Written from the 23 story beats below (2004 to 22 Feb 2022), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.