Kin picked up a further 1.77% of Dacian on Thursday, paying A$2.9 million via on-market purchases.
It increased Kin’s stake in Dacian to 7.34%. The explorer has been buying Dacian shares on-market since August.
Delphi holds an additional 3.2% of Dacian.
Dacian is now 76.1%-owned by Genesis but it has been unable to secure further acceptances this month.
The scrip offer, first launched in July, is due to close today, unless extended again.
Kin and Delphi’s stakes prevent Genesis from getting to the 90% threshold required to move to compulsory acquisition.
Kin said it viewed the Dacian assets as good value at current prices.
Kin’s 1.4 million ounce Cardinia gold project in Leonora is 87km from Dacian’s 3 million tonne per annum Mt Morgans plant.
Kin said both assets were strategically valuable and would play an important role in consolidation of the Leonora district.
The company said its development-ready deposits had the potential to provide near-term feed to Mt Morgans.
Last week, the board of Dacian, which comprises 60% Genesis’ representatives, sought expressions of interest from parties potentially wanting to use the plant to toll treat ore.
Kin has previously engaged with Dacian and will continue to do so to examine processing opportunities on acceptable commercial terms for Cardinia ore through the Mt Morgans plant.
“While Kin continues to build its mineral resources through exploration to support a stand-alone processing facility, we continue to evaluate all early, low capital cost opportunities to monetise parts of our resource base, if this makes commercial sense,” Kin managing director Andrew Munckton said.
“Approximately half of our 1.4Moz mineral resource, which is predominantly oxide and transitional material, is best suited to the conventional grind and leach processing technology offered by Mt Morgans and other processing facilities located within our sphere of influence.
“Kin’s fresh sulphide ores are optimally suited to flotation and concentrate fine grinding prior to leaching, however these sulphide ores still perform acceptably through conventional processing in the absence of a suitable flotation and fine grinding facility.”
Leonora producer St Barbara holds 15% of Kin.
St Barbara has confirmed talks with Genesis and Red 5 over consolidation.
Red 5 said today it had been approached by other interested parties “in relation to transactions, including consolidation, acquisition and merger”.
The company is in discussions and due diligence investigations but said there was no certainty any deal would be reached.
Red 5 today confirmed its new King of the Hills mine, adjacent to St Barbara’s ground, was on track to reach commercial production by the end of the year.
Red 5 shares were unchanged this morning, valuing the company at $471.3 million.
St Barbara has a market capitalisation of $467 million, while Genesis is capped at $512 million.
Dacian is worth around $150 million.
Kin is the smallest of the Leonora players with a market cap of about $83 million.
