PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed diversified miner Independence Group has entered into a farm-in agreement with fellow listed Alchemy Resources over its tenements in the Bryah basin, in Western Australia, which has proven prospective for high-grade base metal deposits.
By spending A$6-million over a five-year period, Independence could earn an 80% interest in Alchemy’s base metals interest, apart from iron-ore, at the Bryah basin assets.
Once Independence has fulfilled its earn-in expenditure, Alchemy would be free-carried on further exploration to the completion of a prefeasibility study, and carried on an interest-free deferred basis for a further A$5-million of definitive feasibility study spend.
Alchemy would retain control of the Bryah basin tenements, with the company saying it intended to focus its near-term exploration efforts to drill-test high-grade gold targets and shallow geochemical drilling of targets along potential gold mineralisation corridors within tenements excluded from the joint venture.
Meanwhile, Independence recently completed around A$1-million of exploration spend, which included initial aircore drilling and ground electromagnetic surveys, over base metal targets at the project area.
The diversified miner was expected to integrate the results from this work with existing data sets to identify exploration targets along the prospective Narracoota volcanic sequence.