Minmet, Gold Fields join forces in the Dominican

South Africa’s Gold Fields (GFI-N) and Dublin, Ireland-based Minmet have agreed to jointly explore for gold in Western Dominican Republic.

The two are targeting areas prospective for high-sulphidation gold-silver deposits to the west of Placer Dome‘s (PDG-T) Pueblo Viejo gold project. The pair will also explore for large porphyry copper-gold systems.

Under the deal, Gold Fields will foot the bill for an initial $250,000, six-month exploration program. Thereafter, the partners will fund all work, including property acquisition and target definition equally. Minmet will act as manager of any programs.

The deal also allows Gold Fields to boost to 60% its stake in any of the joint ventures projects in return for extra funding. Once it has taken an extra 10% in a property, Gold Fields can elect to takeover as manger. Project funding would then reflect relative ownership. Minmet has the option to revert to a 2% net smelter return royalty on any project.

The deal is subject to approval by the South African Reserve Bank and Gold Fields’ board.

MinMet’s Dominican portfolio includes the recently discovered porphyry copper-gold mineralization system on the El Brujo concession, and gold mineralization from a new target at Bacco y Ofir. Both are located on the east-central portion of the island nation.

Recent rock sampling at Bacco y Ofir returned up to 9.6 grams gold per tonne, with 19 samples running more than 1 gram gold, and five samples running between 2.4 and 4.8 grams gold. The rock samples were derived from soil anomaly measuring 700 metres by 1.7 km, with gold values up to 1.1 grams gold plus up to 0.16% copper.

Minmet can earn a 51% stake in Bacco y Ofir from Energold Mining (ECD-V) by spending US$150,000. The project is adjacent to the Bayaguana gold project where Everton Resources (EVR-V) is earning a half-interest from Globestar Mining (GMI-V) by funding US$1.5 million worth of exploration over two years.