Vancouver-headquartered project generator Mirasol Resources has signed a binding letter agreement with Newcrest International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newcrest Mining, for an option to farm-in on the Gorbea high-sulphidation epithermal (HSE) gold projects in Chile.
“Newcrest is the ideal partner for our Gorbea projects. Subject to drill permitting, Newcrest will this year fund drill testing of two, large Mio-Pliocene belt HSE gold and silver projects at Gorbea and under a separate agreement, at the Altazor project in northern Chile,” Mirasol CEO Stephen Nano commented in a statement on Monday.
The Gorbea agreement comprises a package of projects totalling 26 684 ha, including the Atlas gold and silver and the Titan gold/copper properties, located in the Mio-Pliocene age mineral belt of northern Chile.
NCM has the right to acquire, in multiple stages, up to 75% of the Gorbea project by completing a series of exploration and development milestones and making staged option payments to Mirasol.
NCM has committed to spend a minimum of $4-million and to complete a minimum of 3 000 m of drilling over an initial 18-month period.
NCM will operate the exploration programme at Gorbea.
NCM and Mirasol are working collaboratively to advance the drill permitting process at Gorbea and upgrade the exploration camp ahead of the planned restart of the exploration programme in the first quarter. The exploration will initially focus on the Atlas project, including detailed re-mapping, alteration vectoring studies, 60 line-km of CSAMT geophysics, and diamond core drilling.