17/11/2014 — Gold
E
urasian strikes new deal on Neavesville
By Ross Louthean
The Canadian mineral royalty company Eurasian Minerals Inc has struck a new deal on its Neavesville epithermal gold-silver project near Waihi in the Hauraki goldfield.
Eurasian Minerals (TSX-V: EMX & NYSE MKT: EMXX) said it has struck an agreement with Australian privately-held company Land & Minerals Ltd which it dubbed “L&M”.
There is a coincidence, but perhaps no more, in the fact that the previous company planning to acquire Neavesville was Glass Earth Gold (now Antipodes Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: AXG) which before its name change and management change had the support of Christchurch-based Geoff Loudon who is principal of the NZ petroleum, coal and gold company L&M Group.
At the time Glass Earth dropped out of the Neavesville play it was running tight on capital and Geoff Loudon’s group was expected to either take up equity or have some other involvement with the prospect.
However, it all lapsed so Eurasian Minerals began looking for a new partner or acquirer of the property.
Eurasian Minerals said it had given Land & Mineral the right to acquire its subsidiary Hauraki Gold Ltd which controls Neavesille.
Hauraki Gold has also entered into a joint venture agreement and access agreement with the Pakirarahi 1B Trust, which controls surface rights across a majority of the project area.
Under the deal Land & Mineral must:
- Reimburse Eurasian $C100,000 ($NZ112,000) exploration costs.
- Make payment of 75 troy ounces of gold by the second anniversary of the agreement date.
- Pay 600 oz of gold1 within 30 days of the third anniversary of the agreement date.
- Undertake at least 3,000 metres of drilling in the first three years after the agreement date.
- Further payments at the rate of 100 oz of gold per annum beginning with the third anniversary of the agreement until a start to commercial production, which may be credited against a deferred consideration.
- Agree to pay amounts equivalent to 3% of net smelter returns from production from the exploration licenses; in any given year, Further payments made prior to production may be credited against up to 80% of the deferred consideration payable in that year.
- Beginning with a decision to construct a mine based on a JORC (2012) feasibility level Technical Report that supports a positive production decision, payment of 0.01 oz of gold for each of the first 500,000 oz of contained gold in proven and probable reserves1. For any contained oz in reserves that exceed 500,000 oz over the life of the project, the gold payment to EMX will be reduced to 0.005 oz of gold per contained oz.
Eurasian said gold payments may also be made in equivalent US dollars at the then spot price of gold – the mode of payment to be at Land and Minerals’ election.
Failure to make the gold payments or achieve the required drilling would see Eurasian entitled to retake possession of Hauraki Gold or the permit covering the property.
Neavesville takes in a single exploration permit covering 30 square kilometres and several identified gold-silver targets.
One of the mineralised zones, Trig Bluffs, has an historic near-surface inferred resource reported as 3.2 million tonnes grading 2.7 grams/tonne gold and 8.9 g/t silver, for 289,000 oz gold and 944,000 oz silver.
In addition, says Eurasian, a separate higher-grade historic inferred resource of about 0.47 Mt @ 7.1 g/t Au and 20.7 g/t Ag, represents 107,000 oz Au and 312,000 oz Ag.
“The historic estimates should not be relied upon until they can be confirmed. However, the drill-delineated Trig Bluffs gold-silver mineralisation described by the IGNS (GNS Science) report is considered relevant,” Eurasian said.
The district had historic production from the high-grade Ajax Vein system, the single largest producing historic mine in the Neavesville camp, which is within the Pakirarahi 1B Trust land and will be the initial target of an upcoming exploration programme
“The vein has not been explored in recent decades, and only two modern holes have been drilled in the vicinity of the mine workings, both of which intersected mineralisation, with one drilled through a stoped cavity,” the company added.
Companies mentioned in article
Antipodes Gold Ltd
Eurasian Minerals Inc