Sanatana Resources has entered into a letter of intent to acquire the Tirua project, a porphyry copper-gold project located in the Solomon Islands.
Image: A native copper. Photo: courtesy of Native_Copper_Macro_Digon3.jpg: “Jonathan Zander (Digon3)"/ derivative work: Materialscientist (talk)/Wikipedia.
The Tirua project, hosted in the 15km wide (68 square kilometres in area) Tirua volcanic caldera, is located on New Georgia Island, in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, part of the South Pacific archipelago of volcanic islands around the Ring of Fire.
This chain of islands is renowned for hosting large copper and gold deposits, extending from Papua New Guinea (“PNG”) in the northwest to Fiji to the southeast, most notably the giant epithermal Ladolam Gold Deposit on Lihir Island and the copper-gold porphyry Panguna deposit on Bougainville, immediately west of New Georgia Island.
Pursuant to a prospecting agreement, which is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval (“the Agreement”), signed with Trevor Wright, Sol Mar Por Pty Ltd, Brian D Edgar and Stadnyk and Partners (collectively, “the Vendors”), the Company, through its Solomon Islands wholly owned subsidiary ExSol SI Ltd, has received notice of a letter of intent (the “LOI”), from the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification to issue a Prospecting License (the “PL”) subject to the completion of surface access agreements (“SAA”), which will allow for exploration of the Tirua Project.
Sanatana will be working with Trevor Wright, MSc Geology, who has some 20 years experience in gold and copper projects in the Southwest Pacific.
Trevor, and his team, who bring expertise in community relations, support and logistics will partner with Sanatana’s Buddy Doyle, who spent 8 years in PNG and was instrumental in the discovery, definition, and decision to mine phases of the world class Lihir Gold Mine.
Mr. Wright undertook surface and geophysical studies at Tirua that led to a six hole drill program being conducted. This and other limited work has demonstrated that the Tirua caldera has gold and copper mineralization, much of which, including significant targets developed by Mr. Wright, remains untested and underexplored.
Highlights of Past Exploration:
Drilling: The best intervals from 11 drill holes ran 62m @ 0.45% Cu from surface and 3m @ 2.52 g/t Au from 98m.
Trenching: 15m @ 1.16 g/t Au (open).
Maximum rock chip float samples of 37.7 g/t Au, 201 g/t Ag, and 0.25% Cu.
Maximum soil samples of 10.7 g/t Au, 322 g/t Ag and 0.29% Cu.
Completion of airborne magnetic and radiometric survey over the entire caldera highlighting a distinct ring structure.
Wide spread alteration and porphyry Cu-Au and epithermal Au mineralisation associated with geophysical / structural interpretations.
Note that previous exploration was conducted between 1983 and 2013 and the data has been verified by Mr. Trevor Wright from open file reports obtained from the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification. These samples may not be indicative of future results.
Sanatana Resources president and CEO Peter Miles said: “We are excited to acquire the Tirua project. In our opinion the limited work done at Tirua to date has shown it to have extensive and significant mineralization in a world class underexplored geological setting.
“Sanatana is in a unique position to maximize the potential of the project by combining Buddy’s knowledge of caldera geology and logistics gained through his experience at Lihir, and Trevor’s similar experience at Tirua”.
Sanatana Resources exploration VP Buddy Doyle said: “The Tirua project is in a geological setting with a large mineralized alteration system that has seen only minimal historic drill testing, leaving many high priority exploration areas and specific targets untested. I look forward to helping with the future exploration of this exciting opportunity”.
Sanatana’s exploration and management team are planning to visit the Tirua project shortly in order to plan exploration and to begin the process to acquire the necessary SAAs, which are expected to be in hand before Christmas.
The terms of the Agreement, are:
Within 10 business days of the issuance of the PL, 25,000,000 shares of the Company will be issued to the Vendors;
Within 10 business days of the receipt by the Company of a resource report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”) indicating a minimum resource of 1,000,000 ounces of gold (or gold equivalent if other metals are considered to be economic), 3,750,000 additional shares of the Company will be issued to the vendors;
Within 10 business days of the receipt by the Company of a resource report prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 indicating a minimum resource of 2,000,000 ounces of gold (or gold equivalent if other metals are considered to be economic), 3,750,000 additional shares of the Company will be issued to the vendors;
Within 10 business days of the receipt by the Company of a resource report prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 indicating a minimum resource of 3,000,000 ounces of gold (or gold equivalent if other metals are considered to be economic), 3,750,000 additional shares of the Company will be issued to the vendors; and
Within 10 business days of the receipt by the Company of a resource report prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 indicating a minimum resource of 4,000,000 ounces of gold (or gold equivalent if other metals are considered to be economic), 3,750,000 additional shares of the Company will be issued to the vendors.
Source: Company Press Release