Photo by: Duane Daws
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior gold developer Austral Gold has entered into an asset transfer agreement with TSX-listed Yamana Gold, under which it would acquire the Amancaya project, in Chile.
Under the terms of the agreement, Austral would acquire the project for $12-million in cash, payable in tranches. The first $3-million payment would be due on closing of the transaction, with subsequent payments due in six-month intervals.
Austral would also pay a 2.25% royalty on the net smelter return on gold produced from the Amancaya mining concession.
Austral director Robert Trzebski said on Tuesday that the acquisition gave the company’s Chilean asset base a much greater scale, significantly increasing the company’s footprint.
“With our existing mining operations at Guanaco located very near Amancaya, we can ramp up the development of this project in the immediate term,” said Trzebski.
He noted that the company was in the final stages of assessing a second-hand agitation leaching plant, which Austral would acquire and transport to the Amancaya site. In addition, some of the Guanaco staff would be deployed to the new project to progress development.
The Amancaya project has an inferred mineral resource of 407 000 gold-equivalent ounces, at a grade of 9.1 g/t gold, which included 351 000 oz of gold and 3.27-million ounces of silver.
The acquisition of Amancaya gave Austral the foundation and asset base to target yearly production of 100 000 oz of gold within the next 24 months.