- Sunstone Metals (STM) is set to acquire the Verde Chico project from the Verde Chico Group (VCG), located west of the company’s El Palmar discovery in northern Ecuador
- The acquisition quadruples the company’s land position in the area to 3672 hectares, and will make staged payments to VCG totalling $3.6 million in cash and $350,000 in shares
- There has been no exploration at Verde Chico since 1998, but historical exploration identified a 1.1-kilometre-long gold-in-soil anomaly that is open to the north and south
- Sunstone will undertake a systematic exploration program once the full acquisition agreement has been signed and all access approvals and permits are in place
- Shares in Sunstone Metals were up 10.53 per cent to 4.2 cents as of 11:12 am AEST
Sunstone Metals (STM) is set to acquire the Verde Chico project from the Verde Chico Group (VCG), located west of the company’s El Palmar discovery in northern Ecuador.
The acquisition will quadruple the Sunstone’s land position in the region to 3672 hectares.
VCG has agreed to transfer ownership of Verde Chico to MinVCH — a new entity which will hold the Verde Chico project and which will ultimately be wholly owned by Sunstone. The total consideration for the project of $3.6 million in cash and $350,000 in shares will be made in staged payments based on certain milestones, and includes $100,000 in cash upon signing of the agreement, and $100,000 in cash upon the commencement of drilling.
There has been no exploration on the Verde Chico project since 1998. However, historical exploration identified a 1.1-kilometre-long gold-in-soil anomaly that is open to the north and south, which includes several high-grade gold-bearing veins at surface.
Sunstone Managing Director Malcolm Norris called the acquisition an “exceptional” opportunity for the company to secure a large, highly prospective landholding close to El Palmar.
“The area is extremely prospective for both epithermal gold and porphyry gold-copper mineralisation,” Mr Norris said.
“We will embark on a systematic exploration program, as we have done with considerable success at our El Palmar and Bramaderos projects.”
Historical exploration comprised regional stream sediment sampling, soil sampling, limited geophysics (CSAMT), trench sampling and diamond drilling.
The area was previously drilled at several locations and returned significant intervals of gold mineralisation, including 68.5 metres at 1.05 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from surface in hole RVC-08, which in turn included one metre at 11.3 g/t gold from 40.5 metres.
Sunstone confirmed it will undertake a systematic exploration program commencing once the full staged acquisition agreement is signed, and once all access approvals and permits are in place.
Shares in Sunstone Metals were up 10.53 per cent to 4.2 cents as of 11:12 am AEST.