PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Juniors Great Boulder Resources and Ausgold have inked a joint venture (JV) agreement over the Winchester nickel/copper project, in Western Australia.
Under the terms of the agreement, Great Boulder could earn up to a 75% interest in the project by spending A$500 000 over a four-year period.
Ausgold will also be issued with 1.5-million Great Boulder shares, which will be under a staged voluntary escrow period of three to nine months.
Great Boulder MD Stefan Murphy said on Wednesday that the Winchester project could play an important role in the company’s strategy to establish a substantial copper/nickel/cobalt operation.
“The Winchester project represents part of a large igneous province with magmatic sulphide mineralisation now identified over a vast area. Only a very small area has been drill tested at Winchester and the presence of high-grade copper and nickel mineralisation, confirmed through petrography, is extremely promising.”
Murphy said that combining the Winchester with Great Boulder’s Mt Venn and Eastern Mafic deposits, some 40 km away, was an important step in consolidating copper/nickel/cobalt operations in the Yamarna region.
Ausgold MD Matthew Greentree told shareholders that the JV agreement ensured that the Winchester project was advanced by a focused nickel/copper exploration programme over the next two years.
“The JV is structured so Ausgold retains a 25% free-carried interest through to a decision to mine, allowing Ausgold to focus its funds on its 100%-owned Katanning gold project, where the company continues to have exploration success, and is progressing towards a mine development of the 1.04-million-ounce gold resource.”