- Minerals explorer DevEx Resources (DEV) has signed a farm-in agreement with Australian Silica Quartz Group (ASQ) to extend its tenement over the Sovereign magnetic anomaly at the Julimar complex in WA
- The new agreement will see DeVex earn up to a 50 per cent stake in the prospect, excluding bauxite rights, by spending $3 million over three years
- With the acquisition of the fully-permitted ASQ tenement, DevEx can now expedite exploration activity while it awaits the granting of an exploration licence on its already-held ground
- DevEx Resources is up 8.7 per cent today, with shares trading for 12.5 cents each, while ASQ is 12.5 per cent green at 4.5 cents per share
Minerals explorer DevEx Resources (DEV) has signed a farm-in agreement with Australian Silica Quartz Group (ASQ).
The agreement is for DevEx to extend its tenement over the Sovereign magnetic anomaly at the Julimar complex in Western Australia.
ASQ’s tenement, which covers most of the western side of the Sovereign anomaly, is already fully permitted for exploration, and sits adjacent to DEV’s existing tenement.
The new agreement will see DeVex earn up to a 50 per cent stake in the prospect, by spending $3 million over three years.
Joint venture terms
While the Julimar complex is largely being explored for nickel-copper-platinum group element (Ni-Cu-PGE) prospects, ASQ has an existing joint venture (JV) agreement with HD Mining & Investment for any bauxite found on the tenement.
The DevEx-ASQ agreement will see DEV earn 50 per cent of the rights to all minerals except bauxite found at the tenement.
Under the terms of the agreement, DevEx must spend at least $250,000 in the first 12 months. If ASQ decides not to share exploration costs after DEV’s 50 per cent earn-in is complete, DevEx can earn a further 20 per cent of non-bauxite rights by spending an additional $3 million over two years, bringing its total share to 70 per cent.
DevEx will manage all exploration during the earn-in period, and through any subsequent non-bauxite JV.
Next steps
The prospectivity of the Julimar complex has been highlighted by Chalice Gold’s recent Ni-Cu-PGE discovery, and has caused quite some excitement in the area.
With the new JV, DevEx now holds tenements covering 620 square kilometres at Julimar, including the bulk of the Sovereign anomaly.
Sovereign is a tantalising prospect, showing signs of similar geology to Chalice’s high-grade nickel-palladium find to the south.
With the acquisition of the fully-permitted ASQ tenement, DevEx can now expedite exploration activity while it awaits the granting of an exploration licence on its already-held ground.
To get the earn-in started, DevEx will start work on field mapping, surface geochemistry and additional geophysics to define drill targets.
DevEx Resources is up 8.7 per cent today, with shares trading for 12.5 cents each, while ASQ is 12.5 per cent green at 4.5 cents per share as at 12:05 pm AEST.