In return it must pay more than US$2 million over three years, with US$100,000 due on the deal’s closing, and subsequent payments due every six months thereafter. Newmont will retain a 2.5% net smelter return royalty on production of gold, silver and base metals.
Newmont will also be able to back into a 60% stake in Calcatreu until the initiation of a feasibility study. To re-acquire its stake, Newmont would have to fork over an amount equal to three times Aquiline’s costs for exploration and development.
The back-in right excludes three mineral claims hosting the Vein 49 deposit. Aquiline has committed to at least US$500,000 worth of exploration over three years on the portion of the property covered by the back-in right.
Calcatreu is home to a low-sulphidation epithermal gold system. The property is 200 km northeast of Meridian Gold’s El Desquite property in the province of Rio Negro in north-central Patagonia. Aquiline says Calcatreu’s geologic setting is similar to that of El Desquite.
Vein 49, which outcrops over a 2-km strike length, is the best of a group of 11 epithermal quartz vein outcrops identified on the property. Trenching by Normandy Mining returned up to 27 metres running 3.6 grams gold and 14 grams silver per tonne, plus 24.5 metres of 5.4 grams gold and 34 grams silver. Initial diamond drilling yielded 2.9-4.2 grams gold and 23-32 grams silver over widths of 22-40 metres.
Although most of the previous work at Calcatreu focused on Vein 49, the property also hosts several other epithermal systems. Trenching on the Trinidad prospect ran up to 3 grams gold over 13 metres, and 77 of 226 surface grab samples from the Nabel prospect exceeded 1 gram gold. One trench returned 4 grams gold over 15 metres.
The project will soon be subjected to an independent technical review.
Be the first to comment on "Aquiline buys Calcatreu project"