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Nova Royalty Corp. (TSXV: NOVR) announced on Friday it has acquired the rights to a 1% net proceeds royalty on the West Wall copper-gold-molybdenum project, a 50/50 joint venture between Anglo American and Glencore. As consideration, Nova has made a cash payment of $4.2 million.
West Wall is a copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry deposit located in the Valparaiso region of Chile, approximately 100km to the northeast of Santiago and 70km north of the Rio Blanco-Los Bronces mineralized district.
The property has two distinct mineralized zones: Lagunillas and West Wall Norte. The mineralization zones are part of an extensive north-northeast striking hydrothermal alteration zone of approximately 9km by 4km. The royalty purchased by Nova covers both zones, which comprise the existing resource on West Wall.
Back in October 2010, Anglo American reported a maiden inferred resource at West Wall, focused exclusively on the Lagunillas zone. The stated inferred resource at that time was 750Mt at 0.54% Cu, 0.05 g/t Au and 0.01% Mo.
Since then, Anglo and Glencore have completed exploration activities resulting in the identification of a new mineralized zone, West Wall Norte, and a significant increase in total mineral resources.
The West Wall project is located in the same geological belt as some of South America’s largest copper deposits, including Andina, Los Bronces, Los Pelambres, El Pachon and El Teniente. The Vizcachitas copper-molybdenum development project, on which Nova has an existing 0.98% royalty and is owned by Los Andes Copper (TSXV: LA), is approximately 20km away from West Wall.
“West Wall is one of the world’s premier greenfield copper projects. Together with the 0.98% NSR that we already own on the neighboring Vizcachitas project, through this transaction, Nova now owns royalties on two of the largest and most advanced development projects in one of Chile’s most strategic copper producing regions,” Alex Tsukernik, Nova’s president and CEO, said in a news release.
Shares of Nova Royalty advanced 6.9% by noon EST time. The company, mainly focused on acquiring royalties on copper and nickel deposits, has a market capitalization of approximately C$244.3 million.
