- Auteco Minerals (AUT) has entered a binding term sheet with First Mining Gold Corp to acquire 80 per cent of the Pickle Crow Gold Project
- Pickle Crow is one of Canada’s highest-grade historical gold mines having produced 1.5 million ounces at 16g/t gold
- The company has also made two appointments to the Board, Ray Shorrocks as Executive Chairman and Steve Parsons as Non-Executive Director
- Auteco is currently up a steady 27.3 per cent with shares trading for 1.4 cents apiece
Auteco Minerals (AUT) has entered a binding term sheet with First Mining Gold Corp to acquire 80 per cent of Pickle Crow.
Located in Ontario, Canada, the Pickle Crow Gold Project is one of Canada’s highest-grade historical gold mines having produced 1.5 million ounces at 16g/t gold.
High-grade gold was successfully mined at Pickle Crow for more than 30 years from 1935 to 1966, with very little modern exploration having been completed since then.
Pickle Crow is a high-grade, shear-hosted, mesothermal Archean lode gold deposit which occurs primarily within mafic volcanic and banded iron formations.
Mineralisation is focused around steel northwest dipping, regional-scale shear zones with the bulk of the mineralisation hosted near the Main Break structure.
Multiple mineralisation styles have been identified with the likes of quartz-gold-tungsten veins, shear-zone hosted mineralisation, quartz-arsenopyrite stockwork veins, and banded iron formation mineralisation.
The earn-in agreement with First Mining, which is about to begin, will be the first systematic exploration of the property in more than 50 years.
This presents a unique opportunity for Auteco to revisit and unlock the potential of one of Canada’s historic, high-grade gold mines in a world-class area.
The 190 square kilometre Pickle Crow project was acquired due to the high potential of the project to host high-grade, lode style gold mineralisation.
The purchase also provides a base of operations in the Birch-Uchi sub-province of the Superior Craton.
There are a number of high-priority targets a Pickle Crow that have either not been followed up or have had little to no exploration test work undertaken on them.
These include multiple unmanned lode positions surrounding historic underground workings, potential new high-grade lodes, and near-surface broad mineralised lodes.
A payment of C$50,000 (AUD$56,000) has already been made to First Mining upon execution of the binding term sheet.
Subject to the execution of a formal agreement within 45 days and upon signing of the formal agreement, a further C$50,000 in cash will be paid and 25 million worth of shares in Auteco at a price of $0.008 per share will be issued.
Stage 1, for 51 per cent, will see Auteco spend C$5 million (AUD$5.6 million) over a three year period with C$750,000 (AUD$842,000) to be spent over a 12-month period and C$4.25 million (AUD$4.77 million) within a 24-month period.
For a further 19 per cent, stage 2 will see Auteco payout expenditure in the 24-month period beginning on the date Auteco satisfies stage 1 earn-in of C$5 million (AUD$5.6 million).
To buy in a further 10 per cent, bringing the total to 80 per cent, Auteco can pay C$3 million (AUD$3.3 million) to First Mining, a two per cent net smelter return granted after the stage 2 earn-in.
The company also made two appointments to the Board, with Ray Shorrocks appointed as Executive Chairman and Steve Parsons as Non-Executive Director. Ian Gordon has also resigned.
Auteco is currently up a steady 27.3 per cent with shares trading for 1.4 cents apiece at 3:10 pm AEDT.