Australian Gold and Copper (AGC) has signed a binding agreement with Eastern Metals (EMS) to acquire the Browns Reef project, significantly expanding its presence in New South Wales’ South Cobar region.
The acquisition includes EL6321, EL9136, EL9180, and EL9565 tenements, increasing the South Cobar project’s total exploration area to 2600km².
Browns Reef, which is a 6.5km-long mineralised corridor with over 24,000m of historic drilling, presents a highly prospective silver, gold, and base metal target.
“This is a growth transaction,” AGC managing director Glen Diemar said. “The Browns Reef deposit is an advanced stage target with over 24,000m of historic drilling along a 6.5km strike.
“It has numerous areas of high-grade mineralisation already drilled spanning hundreds of metres in strike length. There are large gaps where additional mineral inventory will be targeted. It is a sensible and very attractive growth target for AGC.”
Diemar said previous exploration had not focused sufficiently on consolidating drilling to enable a JORC resource.
“We will focus our initial drilling at the silver-gold-rich northern prospects, Evergreen and Kelpie Hill, with the potential to deliver a maiden resource,” he said.
Under the terms of the agreement, AGC will pay Eastern Metals a non-refundable deposit of $200,000, followed by $1.3 million in AGC shares upon completion.
Eastern Metals plans to distribute $700,000 of these shares to its shareholders in-specie and retain the remainder as a strategic investment. The company expects to put the transaction to shareholders in a general meeting scheduled for late September.
Upon approval, the sale is expected to deliver a 0.5 cent per share benefit to Eastern Metals shareholders, while allowing them to maintain exposure to the asset through AGC.
“We have enjoyed working with the EMS board on this transaction and thank them for their professionalism,” Diemar said. “We look forward to welcoming their shareholders onto our register.”
Subscribe to Australian Mining and receive the latest news on product announcements, industry developments, commodities and more.
