Perth-based gold explorer Mawson West Ltd has signed a deal with Anvil Mining Ltd, enabling it to earn a 65 per cent interest in a tenement package in central Africa for US$4 million (A$5.4 million) over four years.
Perth-based gold explorer Mawson West Ltd has signed a deal with Anvil Mining Ltd, enabling it to earn a 65 per cent interest in a tenement package in central Africa for US$4 million (A$5.4 million) over four years.
At 840 WST, shares in Mawson were up 1 cent to 8.8 cents.
The initial focus of the project will be the evaluation of copper deposits in the Kapulo area, located 130km northeast of Anvil Mining's Dikulushi Mine, followed by systematic exploration of the tenement package.
Below is the full announcement:
Mawson West Limited (ASX: MWE) is pleased to advise that it has signed an agreement
with Anvil Mining Limited, which enables it to farm in to part of a large contiguous
tenement package that straddles the border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) in central Africa. The initial focus of this project will be the evaluation of
copper deposits in the Kapulo area, located 130km northeast of Anvil Mining's Dikulushi
Mine, followed by systematic exploration of the tenement package.
The deal enables Mawson West to earn a 65% interest in the project for a total
expenditure of US$4M over four years. The earn-in will be staged, with Mawson West able
to gain control of the project, with a 51% interest, after spending US$2.7M or upon
definition of a JORC compliant indicated resource of 50,000t of copper (at 4%), whichever
comes first. The terms of the agreement also provide for an equity interest to be held in
trust for the local community, in line with a similar arrangement at Anvil's Dikulushi
Mine.
Mawson West will operate under a strategic agreement with Anvil, whereby Mawson West
will work as a contract company to Anvil until it has gained a 51% interest. This will
allow Mawson West to operate under the terms of Anvil's Dikulushi Mining Convention,
and to benefit from the years of experience built up by Anvil in the DRC.
The Kapulo copper deposits have been explored by Simikat, Seremi, and Falconbridge,
during the 1920s, 1950s, and 1970s, respectively, indicating the potential to host between
750,000t of ore grading 4.7% copper and 850,000t at 5.7% copper. These estimates were
based on digging and systematic sampling of 386m of pits, 924m of open-cuts, 4,168m of
drifts and eight diamond drill holes totalling 2,055m. Due to the age of the exploration
work the potential quantity and grade is of a conceptual nature, and as such cannot be
used to define a Mineral Resource under the JORC Code. It is uncertain if further
exploration will result in the determination of a Mineral Resource. The calculations are
based on open ended mineralisation and only account for material above the water table
which averages 50m in depth. Some reported intercepts from adit sampling are, 36.5m @
6.98% Cu, 38.5m @ 6.39% Cu, and 31m @ 6.99% Cu.
Numerous copper occurrences are located along a 140km long regional fault zone within
the project area. Mawson West believes there is the potential to host very significant
copper tonnes within the project area.
Mawson West is excited at gaining a foothold in the DRC and with the democratic
elections being held in the country in June 2006 believes that the investment climate for
mining companies will continue to improve over the coming years.
Diversification of the Company's projects, to include more than Western Australian gold
exploration - is a key growth strategy for the Company and is seen as being in the best
interest of Mawson West's shareholders.
