Evolution Mining has taken a bigger bite of Queensland’s copper coffers with an earn-in agreement for a stake in Red Fox Resources’ Cloncurry North project.
The agreement sets up Evolution to earn an 80 per cent interest in Cloncurry North by funding $8 million in expenditures over four years.
Cloncurry North sits alongside True North Copper’s highly anticipated Cloncurry copper project, which itself was given an expansion greenlight in December.
Red Fox Resources already has a deal in the works with Rio Tinto Exploration (RTX) for its Ernest Henry South project, a south-eastern extension of Evolution’s Ernest Henry.
To meet the terms of the new deal, Evolution will have to front $500,000 in the first year of exploration alongside rolling cash payments totalling $200,000 over the life of the agreement.
The company is also growing its presence in Canada, striking up an earn-in agreement with Northern Superior Resources for a 75 per cent interest in its October gold project situated in north-eastern Ontario.
Evolution discovery vice president Glen Masterman welcomed the new projects, which he said complement promising drilling results from Ernest Henry and the company’s Cowal project in New South Wales.
“We are excited to be adding two quality projects to our exploration portfolio, focusing on gold and copper projects in world class geological terrains in Australia and Canada,” he said.
The good news keeps rolling Evolution, announcing the official completion of its acquisition of Rio Tinto’s joint venture Northparkes copper-gold mine in central-west NSW.
The miner finished up the year with an 85 per cent increase in its overall mine cashflow and a gold production of 161,073 ounces.
Though the less-than-expected production caused a dip in Evolution’s share price this week, Evolution managing director and chief executive officer Lawrie Conway remains optimistic.
“Momentum is expected to build in the second half of the year which will deliver on our commitment to deleverage the balance sheet,” he said.
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