JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed Aethon Minerals has entered into an option agreement with private Chilean company Sociedad Legal Minera La Florida De Canela to acquire a 100% interest in the Llanos De Llahuin project, in Chile.
The project is considered to have potential for a substantial copper/gold/molybdenum porphyry body, together with associated higher-grade breccia and shear zone bodies.
Under the terms of the option agreement, Aethon will be required to pay Sociedad Legal Minera La Florida De Canela $100 000 within ten days. It will make further payments, in stages up to 48 months after the agreement is signed, totalling $6.2-million.
Further, Sociedad Legal Minera La Florida De Canela will retain a 2% net smelter return royalty, but Aethon has the exclusive option to acquire the royalty at any time for $4.5-million.
Aethon’s first phase exploration programme on the Llanos De Llahuin project will include detailed geological mapping, chip and channel sampling, ground magnetics and induced polarisation surveys.
The programme will help define drill targets for an initial 1 000 m of diamond drilling which is expected to be conducted within the first six-month period.