Perth-based gold explorer Mawson West Ltd has signed a a joint venture agreement to work with St Barbara Ltd on its Golden Mile South project, 4km south west of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.
Perth-based gold explorer Mawson West Ltd has signed a a joint venture agreement to work with St Barbara Ltd on its Golden Mile South project, 4km south west of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.
St Barbara will have the capacity to earn up to a 70 per cent interest in the project by spending $5 million over five years. The company must spend a minimum of $500,000 within six months.
In addition, Newmont Australia Investment Ltd has the right to by a 40 per cent stake in the Lakewood joint venture, within the Golden Mile South project, as well as a net smelter royalty, by paying twice the exploration expenditure of St Barbara in the area.
It must also provide any technical data it has on the area and attend technical meetings annually to provide assistance to the JV.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Mawson West Ltd is pleased to announce a substantial Joint Venture between MWE and St Barbara Limited. SBM is farming into the 112km Golden Mile South Project, located 4km southeast of the 74Moz Kalgoorlie Super Pit in Western Australia.
- 4 kilometres from Kalgoorlie Super Pit
- Unsurpassed infrastructure
- Surrounded by +100Moz Au and +4.5Mt Nickel, endowed region
- Under-explored due to previously fragmented tenement holding
- Transported cover, and deep weathering has obscured potential deposits from historical prospecting and exploration
The GMS Project covers approximately 112km2and is located south-east of Kalgoorlie (Figure 1) which hosts over 80Moz of gold.
The north-west boundary of the GMS Project lies approximately 4km from Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Ltd (Newmont-Barrick JV) "Super Pit" operation.
The Super Pit is Australia's largest producing gold mine and produces over 800,000 ounces of gold per year. The Kalgoorlie region is host to over 100M oz of gold and over 4M tonnes of Nickel metal truly one of the premier addresses in the world for mineral endowment.
Effective systematic exploration of the project area has not been possible until now due to small fragmented tenement holdings. The entire tenement package has now been consolidated under one owner. The tenure has extensive soil, cover and deep weathering which has hidden any potential mineralised systems form historic exploration and prospecting.
The GMS project is made up of Lakewood and Hannans East tenements (GMS 95% owner) and South Lakewood, Kenty, GMS Central and Feysville tenements (GMS 100% owned). It also includes Cazaly tenements upon MWE completing a farmin to acquire up to a 75% interest in the Cazaly tenements under an agreement with Cazaly Resources Ltd ("Cazaly Farmin").
The deal enables SBM to earn a 70% interest in the project for a total expenditure of $5M over five years. This is a staged earn with the first step being 51% for expending $3M over three years, at which time MWE can elect to contribute and retain its remaining equity, or if not, then SBM can elect to spend a further $2M over two years to earn a total of 70%. SBM must spend a minimum
of $500,000 within six months before withdrawing from the agreement. MWE has the option to contribute at the end of the stage 1 earn. Detail of project equity after the various earn stages can be found in Appendix II.
Newmont Australia Investment Limited will provide any technical data it has on the Lakewood area and attend technical meetings annually to provide assistance to the JV in respect of the Lakewood JV area (indicated in Figure 1). Newmont is entitled to a royalty and has the right to buy a 40% interest in the joint venture in respect of that area by paying 2 times the total exploration expenditure on that area from the date of its acquisition by MWE, to SBM and MWE and minority partners.
SBM was the preferred party during the bidding stage due to the proven track record of their management in respect of successful exploration in areas where basement rocks are obscured by transported cover; including Bronzewing and Jundee.
MWE sees this agreement as an exciting strategic development for advancement of the highly prospective GMS package.
