La Mancha sells down Endeavour Mining stake: asset and jurisdiction signals for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
La Mancha Resource Capital has sold a 3.5% stake in Endeavour Mining via a C$71.25-per-share bought deal worth about C$605 million, cutting its holding from roughly 15% to 11% while retaining board representation through Naguib Sawiris. Endeavour, now valued around C$17.5 billion after a 191% share price rise in 12 months, produces in the mid- to high-900,000-oz.-per-year range from West African assets including Houndé (Burkina Faso) and Ity and Agbaou (Côte d’Ivoire). The move comes as Burkina Faso has nationalised Endeavour’s former Boungou and Wahgnion mines, paying about $80 million and asserting full state control.
Technical Brief
- Bought deal priced at C$71.25 per share generated gross proceeds of about C$605 million.
- La Mancha fund previously held 35.3 million Endeavour shares, equating to ~15% on a non‑diluted basis.
- Fund assets under management were about US$1.7 billion in November, so Endeavour exposure had become concentrated.
- Share price closed at C$77.61 before the deal, then dropped 6.1% to C$72.91 on announcement.
- La Mancha states the sale is driven by leverage reduction and portfolio rebalancing, not asset‑level concerns.
- Board representation is retained via Naguib Sawiris, maintaining direct influence over Endeavour’s capital allocation and project pipeline.
- Nationalisation of Boungou and Wahgnion followed collapse of a >US$300 million sale agreement with Lilium Mining.
Our Take
Endeavour Mining’s focus on West African gold (Houndé, Ity, Wahgnion, Boungou) sits within a relatively crowded field in our database, where several Sahel gold operators have recently faced heightened sovereign and security risk, suggesting La Mancha’s partial exit may also be a portfolio de-risking move rather than a pure valuation call.
With La Mancha’s assets under management at about $1.7 billion and its remaining 11% stake in Endeavour, the sale frees up a material slice of capital that can be redeployed into higher-growth or distressed opportunities in gold and uranium, which dominate much of our recent ‘Projects’ coverage in West Africa and the Sahel.
The reference to Niger as the 7th-largest uranium producer and to GoviEx/Global Atomic aligns this piece with a cluster of uranium and critical minerals stories in our database, signalling that capital originally tied up in a mature gold position like Endeavour could be rotated towards earlier-stage uranium or critical mineral plays in Africa and the US.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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