Gold explorer Alice Queen on Wednesday announced that it had entered into an earn-in and joint venture (JV) agreement with midtier miner St Barbara over the Horn Island gold project, in the Torres Strait of Queensland.
In terms of the agreement with Alice Queen’s 84.5%-owned Kauraru Gold subsidiary, St Barbara has the right to earn a 70% interest in the Horn Island project by sole funding expenditure of $4-million within three years.
The area that is subject to the earn-in rights excluded the historic Horn Island Pit area and the area which was the subject of Alice Queen’s existing inferred mineral resource. Alice Queen would retain the right to continue pursuing exploration activities on Horn Island through to bankable feasibility study in certain excluded zones.
“The agreement with St Barbara was formed on the back of extensive talks with a number of interested parties, but ultimately the company was of the view that St Barbara was the perfect fit for both Alice Queen and Horn Island,” said Alice Queen MD Andrew Buxton.
The ASX-listed junior said that St Barbara had extensive experience in operating in a tropical region like Horn Island.
St Barbara owns and operates the Gwalia mine in the gold-rich province of Leonora in Western Australia and the Simberi mine on Simberi Island in Papua New Guinea’s New Ireland province, which together delivered over 400 000 oz of gold for the miner in the 2018 financial year.
St Barbara’s gold mineral resources, ore reserves and mining operations were spread across the eastern half of Simberi Island, which bears geographical similarities to that of Horn Island and was a key synergistic factor in Alice Queen choosing St Barbara as its joint venture partner for Horn Island.