JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) has entered into an option agreement to earn up to a 71% interest in Khalkos Exploration’s Malartic gold property, in Quebec.

Under the terms of the option agreement, DPM can earn an initial 51% interest in Malartic in exchange for C$412 500, the issuance of an aggregate of 70 000 common shares and spending C$2.5-million within three years on the property.

Thereafter, DPM will have a further option to increase its interest to 71% by incurring an additional C$3.5-million in expenditures on the property within three years.

DPM will be the operator of the project during the option period.

The Malartic property comprises 91 contiguous claims covering 35 km² of prospective Abitibi geology. The full length of the property is transected by several regional shear zones, including the Parfouru and La Pause faults, which run subparallel to the prolific Cadillac Larder Lake fault zone.

Within the property, several quartz carbonate vein gold occurrences are hosted by these regional shear zones and related fracture systems.

In addition, the presence of upper felsic volcanic stratigraphy of the Blake River Group on the property indicates the potential for gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide lenses and related sulphide stockworks similar to deposits in the Doyon-Bousquet-LaRonde gold camp located 10 km west of the Malartic property.

Over the past 70 years, only a few parts of the property were systematically explored and drill tested due to the numerous claims and smaller claim blocks held by different owners. The successful consolidation of these claims by Khalkos allows for a systematic exploration approach that will integrate geology with new geochemical and geophysical datasets to develop drill targets on a wider scale.

"We are very pleased to be partnering with Khalkos to advance the very exciting Malartic property in Quebec, a province with a strong heritage in exploration and mining. This initiative is in line with our corporate strategy to build a diversified pipeline of assets," commented DPM CEO Rick Howes.