VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Project generator Transition Metals has signed an option agreement and exploration joint venture (JV) agreement with Abitibi gold belt-focused explorer Aldershot Resources to advance the Gowganda project, which hosts the Haultain gold discovery, near Kirkland Lake, Ontario.

Aldershot has won the right to earn an initial 51% interest and up to a 75% interest in the property, in return for funding exploration work on the prospective land package.

To earn a 51% interest in the property, Aldershot has committed to funding C$400 000 worth of exploration on the property in the first year, and must incur total work expenditures of C$2-million by the third anniversary of the agreement.

Aldershot also issued 1.5-million common shares to Transition on signing, and provided a further C$450 000 worth of Aldershot shares to Transition by the second anniversary date, subject to exchange approvals to earn its initial interest.

During the course of the initial stage of the option, Transition has agreed to serve as programme operator, dedicating its award-winning team of geologists and expertise to overseeing work programmes funded by Aldershot.

After earning an initial 51% interest, Aldershot may choose to acquire a further 24% interest in the claims (for a total of 75%) by committing to completing a feasibility study. After earning its 51% or 75% interest in the property, the partners will form a JV, with each party obliged to fund work programmes on the property to maintain its respective interest.

Located 75 km south-west of Kirkland Lake, the Gowganda project-hosted Haultain gold discovery is a zone of widespread alteration and gold mineralisation associated with a suite of syenitic intrusions and major faulting discovered by Transition in 2010. Under the partnership with Aldershot, the company has started programmes of exploration work that will include 2 000 m of diamond drilling to further evaluate gold targets identified on the property.

The 3 456 ha Haultain property is located in the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt of Canada, which has historically produced more than 170-million ounces of gold.

Since discovery, Transition has completed induced polarisation geophysics, soil surveying, mapping, and ten mechanically stripped and channel-sampled trenches; it has also completed 21 drill holes totalling 2 258 m. 

According to Transition, the property hosts widespread visible gold mineralisation hosted by stockwork veining in altered syenite with assays ranging from nil to 3.5 g/t over significant widths in channel samples and drilling, as well as up to 97 g/t gold over 0.4 m within quartz veins. Reported drill intercepts include 2.37 g/t over 7.06 m and up to 82.5 g/t gold over 0.4 m. In 2015, Transition completed further soil sampling and detailed mapping to assist drill targeting.