Nexus Minerals has announced the signing of an agreement with Newmont Exploration to purchase three tenements from Newmont covering some 190km2 of prospective geological terrain.

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Image: A gold mineral. Photo: courtesy of carlos aguilar/Freeimages.com.

Nexus will acquire the tenements for a total consideration of $13,100 and a 2% net smelter royalty on all mineral product extracted and recovered from the tenements. Completion under the Tenement Sale and Purchase Agreement is conditional on receipt of government approvals and execution of third-party deeds.

The tenements are located along strike immediately to the north, south and encompassed within the existing Wallbrook Gold Project tenements, already owned by Nexus. They complement Nexus’ existing landholding for a total contiguous package of some 250km2 .

The Wallbrook Gold Project is considered underexplored and highly prospective for the discovery of significant gold mineralisation. Recent drilling completed by Nexus demonstrated this prospectivity with results including:

  •     3m @ 19.36g/t Au (incl 2m @ 27.18g/t Au);
  •      3m @ 6.04g/t Au (incl 1m @ 14.76g/t Au);
  •      3m @ 4.88g/t Au (incl 1m @ 9.70g/t Au); and
  •      2m @ 3.65g/t Au (incl 1m @ 6.03g/t Au).

Within the Carosue Dam district over 5.0 million ounces of gold resources are hosted in a similar geological setting to that underlying the Nexus tenement holding.

Wallbrook Gold Project – Upcoming Exploration Program

Exploration activities to be undertaken over the coming six months will include:

o Historical data review and database integration;

o Geological and structural mapping; o Analysis of regional geochemistry;

o Geophysical programs including gravity and induced polarization (IP) surveys; and

o Drilling of exploration targets identified.

Upon completion of the acquisition Nexus intends to undertake a review of the various historical data sets from the new tenements which will be assembled and integrated into the current database.

Previous exploration has demonstrated that gold mineralisation in the district tends to occur on the margins of porphyritic intrusions. Mineralisation is known to occur within the margins of these porphyries themselves, and also within the intruded sheared and altered greenstone sequence lithologies and as mineralised quartz vein stockworks.

Geological mapping of the tenement package will be completed by exploring for host rock alteration where surface outcrop is evident. Surface geochemistry data will be assessed and areas of limited or no coverage will be sampled in the search for high level gold anomalism.

The use of gravity surveys has proven to be an effective tool used to map the location of nonoutcropping porphyritic intrusives and dyke stocks, above larger intrusive bodies. This, in conjunction with IP / resistivity surveys, with IP resistivity highs are associated with possible intrusive bodies or siliceous alteration and chargeability highs with disseminated sulphides often associated with mineralisation.

This work will culminate in the drill testing of priority targets identified.

The addition of the three regional Newmont tenements adds a significant new prospective land holding to the already highly prospective Nexus tenement package at Wallbrook.

Source: Company Press Release