PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Northern Star has struck a deal with fellow-listed Pioneer Resources to fast-track exploration at the Acra gold project, in Western Australia.
Under the agreement, Northern Star will pay Pioneer A$500 000 to acquire an initial 20% interest in the Acra project, and will hold the right to acquire an additional 55% interest in the project by sole funding A$3-million of exploration expenditure over a three-year period.
Following the formation of a joint venture, Pioneer will be free carried until the approval of a mining proposal.
Pioneer MD David Crook said on Friday that attracting Northern Star to the Acra project, with a commitment to actively explore, endorsed the quality of the gold project.
The project, which is 40 km east of Northern Star’s Kanowna Bell gold mill, has a 20-km-long north-west-trending structural corridor, and has been the subject of limited mining and exploration work.