Ausgold has finalised a farm-in and joint venture agreement with Great Boulder Resources in regards to its 100% owned Yamarna Project.
Image: Ausgold enters into farm-in and JV agreement on Yamarna project. Photo courtesy of carlos aguilar/Freeimages.com.
The project includes the highly prospective Winchester nickel-copper project, located 125 km northeast of Laverton in Western Australia.
The Yamarna Project, which is 40km north along strike of Great Boulder’s Mt Venn Project, comprises exploration licences E38/2129 and ELA 38/3311 covering approximately 300km2of the northern Mt Venn Greenstone Belt. Two RC drill holes completed in October 2018 by Great Boulder at the Winchester Prospect intersected disseminated sulphides chalcopyrite(copper),pentlandite(nickel)and pyrite(iron),confirming thepotential for a significant high nickel-tenor sulphide mineralization. Significant results include:
7m at 1.1% Cu, 0.2% Ni, 0.01% Co from 123m (18WNRC001)
- 13m at 0.9% Cu, 0.3% Ni, 0.02% Co from 138m (18WNRC002) including 5m at 1.1% Cu, 0.7% Ni, 0.04% Co, 0.10g/t PGE
The Agreement
Great Boulder has exercised their option to form a Farm-in/Joint Venture on granted tenement E38/2129 and application E38/3311.Under the terms of the agreement, Great Boulder will issue Ausgold 1,500,000 GBR shares which are under staged voluntary escrow periods of 3 to 9 months. Great Boulder can earn a 51% interest in the Winchester project by spending $250,000 on exploration over two years, and an additional24% (75% in total) by spending an additional $250,000 ($500,000 in total) over four years. Great Boulder has currently spent approximately $100,000 at Winchester.
Upon Great Boulder meeting the minimum expenditure milestone, Ausgold will retain a 25% free-carried interest in the Winchester project to a decision to mine.
Ausgold’s Managing Director, Matthew Greentree, commented : “We are pleased to formalise the Joint Venture agreement with Great Boulder ensuring the highly prospective Yamarna Project is advanced by a focused nickel –copper exploration program over the next two years. Great Boulder has shown a commitment to exploration in the region and has committed to spend $500K to earn 75% of the Yamarna project.”
“The Joint Venture is structured so Ausgold retains a25% free-carried interest through to a decision to mine, allowing Ausgold to focus its funds on its 100%-owned Katanning Gold Project, where the Company continues to have exploration success and is progressing towards amine development of the 1.04 Moz gold Resource.”
Great Boulder Managing Director Stefan Murphy, commented:“TheWinchester project could play an important role in the Company’s strategy to establish a substantial copper-nickel-cobalt operation.”
“The Winchester project represents part of a large igneous province with magmatic sulphide mineralisation now identified over a vast area”Mr Murphy said.
“Only a very small area has been tested at Winchester and the presence of high-grade copper and nickel mineralisation, confirmed through petrography, is extremely promising.
“Combining Winchester with our Mt Venn and Eastern Mafic deposits at Yamarna is an important step in building a consolidated copper-nickel-cobalt business for the region.”
Source: Company Press Release