PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper/gold miner Oz Minerals has inked a term sheet with fellow listed Havilah Resources to option the Kalkaroo copper project, in South Australia.

Oz Minerals will have 18 months to evaluate the potential of the Kalkaroo project, and the option to acquire the project for A$205-million.

Under the terms of the term sheet, Oz Minerals could elect not to exercise the option at any time during this year, provided that 5 000 m of exploration drilling had been done, or with the payment of a shortfall payment to Havilah.

In addition, the agreement provides a deferred contingent consideration of A$65-million, upon a 30% uplift in Kalkaroo’s measured and indicated resource estimate as well as a copper price linked contingent payment in each year of production up to a maximum cumulative amount of A$135-million.

The Kalkaroo project, which is at prefeasibility stage, consists of a mineral resource estimate of 245-million tonnes at 0.45% copper and 0.39 g/t gold, for 1.1-million tonnes of copper, 3.1-million ounces of gold and 23 200 t of cobalt.

In addition to the acquisition of Kalkoora, the term sheet also covers a potential strategic alliance over the Curnamona province, in South Australia.

Under the Strategic Alliance, Oz Minerals will pay Havilah A$1-million a month during the option and alliance period, with 50% of the payments directed towards Havilah identifying and advancing nearby exploration opportunities within the Curnamona Province.

Including the monthly payment, Oz Minerals expects to spend up to A$76-million during the Option and Alliance Period to undertake studies and for exploration activities at the Kalkaroo project and on alliance activities.

Oz Minerals will have certain rights to accelerate exploration in discoveries of copper-dominant mineralisation in the alliance area and to participate in developing any related projects.

“We are pleased to be working with Havilah and to have the opportunity to add an exciting project to our growth pipeline. The agreement allows Oz Minerals to apply our experience of looking at projects in a different way to unlock value during the study phase, while providing Havilah the opportunity to continue to apply its extensive exploration experience across the province to identify new deposits,” said Oz Minerals MD and CEO Andrew Cole.

“The agreement provides a low-cost option and flexibility to study the Kalkaroo project, while retaining the optionality to acquire 100% of the project for a fixed acquisition price together with any deferred contingent consideration. If the study can demonstrate value creation for our stakeholders the fixed component of the acquisition price ensures that Oz Minerals captures additional value identified through the study and provides Havilah shareholders with price certainty, while the deferred contingent consideration rewards Havilah for future value-enhancing milestones.

“During the study period the team will focus on opportunities to identify additional value by assessing a range of modern mining opportunities, innovation, processing improvements and local infrastructure that reduce project costs and improve productivity. The aim of the study is to improve our understanding and confidence in the project, and will include an infill drilling program to confirm the current mineral resource estimate, prior to making a decision to exercise the option to acquire 100% of the Kalkaroo project.”

Cole said that the approach of taking projects from an early study phase through development and into operation could unlock significant value for stakeholders, something the company had previously demonstrated with Carrapateena, now in its third year of operation, and continue to show with West Musgrave as it approached a final investment decision on the project later this year.

“We remain focused on adding multiple options, like Kalkaroo, to our growth pipeline. We have strong study and project construction experience enabling rapid deployment to new projects beyond West Musgrave (should the project be approved) and our current brownfields expansions at Prominent Hill and Carrapateena,” Cole said.

Havilah technical director Dr Chris Giles told shareholders that the company was pleased to form a strategic alliance with Oz Minerals, aimed at harnessing the respective skills of both companies to explore and develop the copper region.

“Exercise of the Kalkaroo option by Oz Minerals would result in monetisation of Kalkaroo and provide what we believe is a fair return for our shareholders without Havilah taking on the longer-term development and financing risks inherent in a large new mining project at this time.

“Funding provided under the strategic alliance would allow us to accelerate exploration for new copper deposits in the region that could potentially be additive to Kalkaroo, as well as advancing our other promising mineral projects south of the Barrier Highway,” said Giles.

“We see the proposed transaction as the first important step in our strategy of realising the value of Havilah’s multi-commodity minerals portfolio by either production, sale or farm-out with suitable well-funded partners.”

The strategic alliance is conditional upon Havilah shareholders approving the Kalkaroo transaction, as well as the entry into formal definitive binding agreements, and an independent expert finding that the transaction was in the best interest of shareholders.