In May 2017, Royal Road Minerals (TSX-V:RYR) acquired Caza Gold (then TSX-V:CZY) in an all-stock deal for the prize of ownership of Caza’s interest in several highly prospective projects in Nicaragua. Later in the year, Caza’s shares were delisted from the Toronto Venture Exchange.
After a brief drop, shares of RYR have enjoyed a strong uptrend since last June and the microcap explorer has even caught the attention of mining behemoth Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX)(NYSE:ABX), with the world’s biggest gold producer by volume taking a 12.5 percent stake in Royal Road in January.
Caza Gold, essentially a de-listed shell, has now caught the eye of a different company, datacenter operator Arctic Blockchain Ltd., who intends to use Caza Gold as a vehicle to the public domain. Akin to the legal marijuana boom a few years ago, defunct or struggling metal miners bailed on the industry to make an opportunistic jump on the trending bandwagon, while cannabis companies sought to come public to access capital for growth.
Even with blockchain a bit out of favor at this exact moment due to Bitcoin prices falling and certain countries laying the hammer down on the unregulated industry, blockchain and the associated "mining" segment – where "miners" generate revenue by solving complex algorithms to add data to the blockchain – continue to be hot button with a compelling potential for future applications.
Per the agreement announced today, Caza Gold will merge with Arctic Blockchain. Arctic is the owner of Boden, Sweden-based Hydro66 UK Ltd., a four-year-old, award winning datacenter company offering co-location services and cryptocurrency miner for itself and on behalf of its customers.
Hydro66’s flagship facility has installed operating capacity of four megawatts with an additional 36 megawatts of capacity under construction expected to be completed during Q1 2019. As the name implies, the facility is run via hydropower, while utilizing innovative methods for free-air cooling year round.
Beyond the 40 megawatts of power secured for the current expansion, Hydro66 has reserved an additional 50 megawatts of power capacity for future expansion.
No, investors aren’t going to see Caza Gold once again listed in Toronto, with the last traces of the company disappearing in the merger and change of business from a mining issuer to a technology issuer. To that end, Arctic plans to seek a listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange concurrent with the closing of the transaction.
