The latest sale, which was reported last week as involving a call spread option that La Mancha said allowed it to "remain exposed to the significant upside potential we see in (Evolution)", adds to the nearly $600 million worth of shares it sold last year.

Prior to the sales La Mancha spent a combined circa $170 million on two fundraisings undertaken by Evolution.

La Mancha originally received 322 million Evolution shares for its Australian assets in 2015.

At the time the assets included the high-grade Frog's Leg underground gold mine, the adjacent White Foil open-pit gold mine and the new 1.5Mtpa Mungari CIL processing plant - all located in close proximity to Kalgoorlie - with combined annual production in the range of 130,000-160,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $950-1000/oz.

At current pricing La Mancha retains about $500 million worth of shares, with the 130 million shares held equating to a 7.6% stake.

Thus, as it stands today, the value of the deal for the Australian assets notionally totalled about $1.1 billion.

La Mancha is a business owned by the Sawiris Family.

Evolution shares were at $3.96 today having been at levels around 80c at the start of 2015.