70% earn-in terms extended for the West Wyalong project
Sydney, Feb 9, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Argent Minerals Limited (
ASX:ARD) (Argent, or the Company) is pleased to report terms and conditions that have been agreed with Golden Cross Operations Pty Ltd (GCO) for increasing the Company's 51% interest in the West Wyalong Farmin and Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) to 70%.
Highlights:
- 70% earn-in date extended from 9 January 2015 to 30 June 2017
- Balance of commitment to earn 70% reduced to $372,570, including $200,000 of in-ground expenditure
- Argent to aggressively pursue copper gold target with extended IP survey to commence February 2016
- Drill test of the large West Wyalong copper-gold target to follow
GCO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Golden Cross Resources Limited (ASX:GCR).
Under the new JVA terms Argent will now have until 30 June 2017 to earn the 70% interest, an extension of approximately 18 months beyond the previous 70% earn-in date of 9 January 2016.
Having invested a total of $977,430 in the project as at 2 December 2015, the balance of Argent's $1,350,000 total commitment to earn 70% has been reduced to $372,570, including an additional $50,000 project expenditure that was agreed as part of the extended terms.
The remaining $372,570 expenditure commitment will include $200,000 of direct in-ground expenditures that have been defined to comprise, for example, geophysics surveys and analysis, and all drilling related work.
Argent is planning to aggressively pursue the large copper gold target identified by the Company at West Wyalong, with the commencement of an extended induced polarisation geophysics survey scheduled for February 2016.
The geophysics survey and analysis will be followed with the design of a drill test plan for the target.
About the strategic location of the West Wyalong project
Located only 7 kilometres from the West Wyalong gold fields that produced 445,700 ounces of gold between 1894 and 1921, the West Wyalong Project is situated in the Macquarie Arc of the Lachlan Orogen, in a geological setting of Ordovician volcanics which hosts world-class porphyry copper-gold mines such as Newcrest's Cadia, China Molybdenum's Northparkes, and 37 kilometres to the north of West Wyalong - the Cowal mine.
The Cowal mine (Cowal) was acquired by Evolution Mining Limited (Evolution) in July 2015 for US$550 million.
Considered by Evolution to be "one of Australia's most attractive gold assets", the Cowal Mineral Resource has been estimated at 5.09 million ounces including Ore Reserves of 2.2 million ounces of gold.
To view all figures, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-ARD-752170.pdf
About Argent Minerals Limited
Argent Minerals Limited (
ASX:ARD) is an Australian publicly listed company with a 100% interest in a silver/gold project at Kempfield NSW. Work is underway on the preparation of an EIS and a feasibility study for the first stage of the project which will involve heap leaching some 8.8 million tonnes of mainly oxide and transitional material to produce over 9.5 million ounces of silver and 15,000 ounces of gold over a 5 year mine life. Argent is also earning up to a 70% interest in two other NSW projects - gold at West Wyalong and base metals at Sunny Corner.
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