Evolution keen to explore in Tennant Creek

12th June 2014 By: Esmarie Iannucci - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

Evolution keen to explore in Tennant Creek

Photo by: Bloomberg

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Evolution Mining has entered into a farm-in and joint venture (JV) agreement with fellow-listed Emmerson Resources over the Tennant Creek mineral field, in the Northern Territory, in a deal valued at up to A$28.87-million.

Under the terms of the JV transaction, Evolution would earn an initial 65% interest in the Tennant Creek project by sole funding A$15-million in exploration expenditure over the next three years.

The gold miner could earn a further 10% interest by investing a further A$10-million over the following two years. Further, Evolution would subscribe for A$1.87-million in Emmerson shares.

Evolution would issue some 2.5-million of its own shares to Emmerson for noncash consideration, equivalent to A$2-million.

Evolution executive chairperson Jake Klein said on Thursday that the Tennant Creek mineral field was a good example of a world-class mineral province that had only recently seen the application of new technologies and exploration concepts to reinvigorate exploration in the area.

“We strongly believe that Australia is underexplored and that there are many discoveries still to be made,” Klein said.

The Tennant Creek gold/copper project covers some 2 500 km2, and has only seen limited exploration. The area is historically one of Australia’s highest grade gold and copper fields, having produced more than 5.5-million ounces of gold and 470 000 t of copper from a variety of deposits, many of which were located within the Emmerson tenement portfolio.

Klein said that the application of new technology and exploration techniques over the project area could uncover several more high-grade gold and copper deposits.

Emmerson MD Rob Bills said that the JV with Evolution would set the scene for the discovery of major new gold/copper resources, building on the company’s own work in recent years, which began to unlock the secrets of finding a new generation of gold/copper deposits in the Tennant Creek area.

“This agreement effectively secures the future for Emmerson by providing the funding to underpin a very significant exploration effort – to build on the existing Joint Ore Reserves Committee [-compliant] resource and to test a range of new generation gold/copper targets which, if successful, will be fast-tracked through to development.”