Vancouver-based Full Metal Minerals (TSXV: FMM) announced today that it has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement with Australia’s Evolution Mining (EVN-ASX) to buy out the Puhipuhi Gold Project, located in the Northland region of the North Island of New Zealand.
In a press release, Full Metal explained that Puhipuhi is an exploration stage epithermal gold project where high grade Au and Ag has been intercepted by drilling at localities over 2 km apart including 2 m at 17g/t Au and 15 g/t Ag, 0.6 m at 23.4 g/t Au and 146 g/t Ag and 2 m at 12.4 g/t Au and 85.0 g/t Ag. A 28 m vein intercept was also detected, but it hasn’t been followed up by subsequent drilling.
The company also said that it considers this deposit analog to Oceana Gold’s Waihi Mine, a low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver deposit that has been in modern production since 1988, is also located on the North Island of New Zealand and whose 2018 guidance is 75-85,000 ounces of gold.
Under the terms of the purchase agreement, the Canadian miner will provide Evolution with an initial cash payment of $50,000 at closing. In addition, the Full Metal has agreed to pay up to $275,000 upon Evolution NZ entering into a new or amended access agreement with certain surface rights owners; $250,000 upon exploration expenditures of $2,000,000 being incurred; $250,000 upon cumulative exploration expenditures of $4,000,000 being incurred; $500,000 upon completion of a NI 43-101 compliant technical report containing an estimate of mineral resources of at least 500,000 oz. gold; $1,750,000 upon completion of a feasibility study; and $2,500,000 upon commencement of commercial production.
