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Toronto-listed Royal Road Minerals (TSXV:RYR) announced Wednesday a new exploration partnership with Nicaragua-focused Hemco. The cooperation agreement aims at identifying and exploring gold and copper targets in the areas covered by both companies’ existing licenses, which would expand significantly their radius of action.
“In particular, the Alliance is initially focused on defining reserves in excess of two million ounces of gold (or gold equivalent) recoverable,” Royal Road officials said in a press release.
Hemco is a subsidiary of Grupo Mineros, Colombia’s largest gold producer, and a holder of licenses covering an area approximately 200,000 hectares in the historic mining region of northeastern Nicaragua known as the “Golden Triangle.”
Royal Road, on the other hand, has a total concession package of approximately 18,500 hectares in the Los Andes district, located in the Department of Boaco, and controls 100 per cent of the 7,947 hectare Aguas Calientes concession, 100 kilometres northwest of Managua.
The new partnership gives the latter access to areas it had not been able to reach before. “We are (…) excited to have acquired access to the ‘Golden Triangle’ area which, in addition to our Nariño project in Colombia, provides the Company with another region of gold and copper exploration potential. Moreover, with funding expected to be contributed by Hemco, we anticipate being in a position to drill test the underlying potential of the exciting Los Andes porphyry copper and gold target, whilst also commencing the planned drilling program at Piedra Iman on an accelerated basis,” Royal Road’s President and CEO, Tim Coughlin, said.
Both firms will jointly fund, on an equal basis, initial project generation and exploration of targets. They are budgeting for an initial program that would cost approximately CAD $1.8 million and would consist of drilling at Royal Road’s Piedra Iman project, prospect inventory mapping and heliborne magnetics and radiometrics in Hemco’s “Golden Triangle” licensed areas, followed by the drilling of two deep holes to test the porphyry copper and gold potential of Royal Road’s Los Andes project.
