Torque Metals has inked a deal to sell its non-core Bullfinch gold project for up to $800,000 in cash and shares to TSXV-listed Altan Rio Minerals, allowing it to sharpen its focus on its flagship Paris gold project south-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.
The Bullfinch project covers 556 square kilometres and is comprised of five wholly-owned exploration licences and one exploration licence application.
Altan, which is also now eyeing an ASX listing, has already handed over $100,000 in a non-refundable cash payment after signing the sale agreement. A second-tranche payment will either be $650,000 in cash or the equivalent amount in shares at the same issue price as those listed at the time of its ASX listing. The deal also makes Altan responsible for all expenditure commitments in order to maintain the tenements.
With Torque looking forward to getting hold of the latest assay results from its recent drilling program at Paris, the timing of the sale is well timed as the explorer looks to give the project its full attention. Management has already identified multiple quartz-sulphide mineralised zones prospective for gold at its project in the renowned Boulder-Lefroy Fault Zone, about 50km south of Kambalda.
The project sits 12km south-east of the multi-million-ounce St. Ives gold mine complex in the heavily gold-endowed Boulder-Lefroy fault zone, which also includes the Kalgoorlie goldfield to the north. The company says its project area remains vastly underexplored, with past drilling generally restricted to the top 50m, highlighting significant opportunities for the potential discovery of additional gold mineralisation.
Previous headline intersections at the Paris prospect include 27m at 10.7 grams per tonne gold from 177m, 12m grading 19.7g/t gold from 177m and 27m going 8.16g/t gold from 156m. Torque is now firmly targeting open-pit and underground gold mine opportunities and in keeping with its steel-eyed focus, has moved on its Bullfinch project, which is 34km from Southern Cross and borders Altan’s existing tenements.
Management says the area has seen historic production grades of 35.7g/t at its Withers prospect, while also sitting in the Southern Cross greenstone belt which has recorded gold production of more than 12 million ounces.
Altan is Canadian-listed, but a Western Australian-focused gold exploration company targeting the Southern Cross greenstone belt. Its appetite for land in the area has seen it more than quadruple its tenement holding since the start of the year, according to chairman Graeme Sloan.
With previous exploration identifying several gold-bearing quartz reefs in a 3km strike length at the Withers prospect and historic drilling returning encouraging gold results at Rutherfords Find and Reynolds Find, Altan’s first actions now the ink has dried will be field mapping and sampling to evaluate drilling plans – initially at priority targets.
Meanwhile, Torque will rev up its Paris project by further unlocking its potential before shifting to production.
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