Greatland Gold has announced a farm-in and joint venture (JV) arrangement with Rio Tinto to expedite exploration across the latter’s Paterson South project in Australia, located near its Havieron gold-copper project.
The exploration is planned for a highly prospective tenure spanning 1,884km² within the Paterson province of Western Australia.
Greatland Gold has a stake of 30% in the Havieron gold-copper project where it is partnered by Newcrest Mining (70%).
The company said that the Paterson South project continues to be relatively underexplored and aligns well with its existing adjacent tenure holdings.
The eastern group of the project tenements is said to host various underexplored magnetic anomalies.
The western group of the tenements has a geological setting which is a strong correlation to the Telfer deposit with the previous delineation of gold in rock chips and copper intersected in the limited drilling carried out so far.
Under a two-stage farm-in arrangement, Greatland Gold will be eligible to earn up to a stake of 75% in a joint venture with Rio Tinto that will hold the Paterson South project tenements.
In the first stage, Greatland Gold will have to spend A$7.1m ($4.6m) in exploration at the Paterson South project and finish 7,500m of drilling within four years for a 51% stake. The Australia-based mineral exploration and development company plans to begin drilling this year.
It can earn an additional stake of 24% with a minimum exploration expenditure of an additional A$14m ($9m) and finish an additional 17,000m of drilling within three years after the stage 1 farm-in has been executed.
Greatland Gold managing director Shaun Day said: “This tenure complements the Company’s current ground position to provide a 105km contiguous holding. The addition of the Paterson South Project more than doubles our current footprint with the most prospective targets within 50km of Telfer.
“Our farm-in and joint venture with Rio Tinto is consistent with our strategy of continuing to invest in exploration success, and aligns the companies responsible for the discovery of Havieron and Winu, the two biggest and most significant orebodies found within the Paterson Province since Telfer in the 1970s.”
