PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Gulf Minerals on Thursday announced that it had entered into a sales agreement with joint venture (JV) partner Laramide Resources to divest of its uranium tenements in the Northern Territory.
Gulf told shareholders that an internal review had revealed that the tenement would not support a standalone operation, and to be economically viable, it needed to become part of the contiguous Westmoreland uranium project, owned by Laramide.
A sales price of A$125 000 had been agreed upon.
“This agreement with Laramide enables our focus to be developing our Indonesian manganese alloying project and our manganese exploration in Turkey, to build the company into a fully-integrated global manganese producer,” said Gulf CEO Bruce Morrin.
The Gulf tenements cover some 227 km2 and lie adjacent to the Westmoreland deposit. Laramide had previously held the right to earn a 90% interest in the project by free-carrying Gulf through to the completion of a bankable feasibility study, and obtaining a mine permit.
Laramide said on Thursday that the acquisition of the Gulf tenements was consistent with the company’s long-term strategy to consolidate the prospective tenure around the Westmoreland project on both sides of the Queensland and Northern Territory border.
Gulf recently divested of its 51% interest in its Northern Territory copper exploration tenement to JV partner Redbank Copper, in a deal also valued at A$125 000.