THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Merah Resources (ASX: MEH) has entered into two separate agreements with Castle Minerals (ASX: CDT) to acquire 100 per cent of Castle’s interests in the Antubia and Kong gold projects in Western Ghana.

Under the terms of the agreements, Merah is to issue up to six million shares to Castle for each project in three equal tranches based on:

–    Tenement grant and/or ministerial consent;

–    Definition of a JORC resource; and

–    Completion of a PFS and mining lease grant.

Merah Resources must also make staged cash payments to Castle totalling $270,000 and commit to spending a minimum $350,000 per annum on exploration.

“We are very pleased to have reached agreement with Merah that will allow renewed exploration activity over these two projects whilst providing significant upside for Castle shareholders through a substantial equity position in Merah,” Castle Minerals managing director Mike Ivey said in Castle’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

 

Project locations. Source: Castle Minerals announcement

 

The Antubia gold project is owned by Castle via its wholly owned subsidiary Topago.

The Ghanaian Government can require a 10 per cent free-carried interest in the Antubia gold project.

The Antubia gold project comprises two contiguous prospecting licences known as Antubia and Boizan with a combined area of 295 square kilometres, located along strike from Newmont’s 17.7 million ounce Ahafo gold mine on the faulted western margin of the Sefwi belt.

Three significant but underexplored gold anomalies have been identified at Antubia, including the plus-3.5km long Boizan target area.

According to Merah shallow drilling undertaken at Boizan has demonstrated the presence of near surface gold mineralisation, intersecting up to 18 metres at 2.74 grams per tonne gold.

The Kong gold project consists of eight Prospecting Licence applications for which the registered applicant is Carlie, also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Castle.

As with the Antubia gold project, the Ghanaian Government can again require a 10 per cent free-carried interest in the Kong gold project.

The Kong Gold Project is located over an area of 1,200sqkm and covers plus-50 strike kilometres of contact zones between Birimian greenstones, Birimian sediments and later stage granitoids.

Merah explained these are interpreted to be structural and not stratigraphic contacts, which provide an optimal geological and structural setting for gold prospectivity.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Plymouth Minerals (ASX: PLH) has entered into two exclusive option agreements in Zambia.

The first involves Plymouth proposing to acquire shares in an entity which has indirect interests or rights to indirectly acquire a portfolio of prospective copper-gold exploration tenements in the Zambian Copperbelt and other regions within Zambia.

The second Agreement is a share sale transaction, by which the company said it proposes to acquire an equity interest in an entity which owns a tenement with small scale existing copper production.

Under the first Agreement Plymouth may acquire up to a 100 per cent interest in Finesse Projects Limited, which is registered in the Isle of Man.

Plymouth explained Finesse indirectly owns or proposes to acquire 80 per cent of a large package of exploration ground in North Western Zambia.

Under the second agreement Plymouth may acquire a 10 per cent interest in Zambian company, H and S Mining, which operates the Kasempa Copper Mine in North Western Zambia.

Plymouth said this agreement provide a low-cost entry point into a portfolio of prospective copper exploration tenements and applications located in close proximity to a number of world class mining operations.

These include First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi copper mine and Barrick Gold’s Lumwana copper mine.

 

Tenement plan and project (Kansanshi) location plan. Source: Company announcement

 

“This is an exciting entry into a blue chip copper mining address,” Plymouth Minerals managing director Adrian Byass said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The package of ground will be aggressively explored and potentially offers shareholders exceptional leverage to reward in the event of a commercial discovery.

“An exploration team is currently being assembled with first pass exploration planned to commence in the near future.”

Plymouth indicated it would be carrying out due diligence with the aim of verifying historical exploration data on hand and, if required, resample and re-assay material in order to allow reporting under ASX JORC guidelines.

As yet, Plymouth is not in possession of exploration data which is suitable for reporting to the ASX.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) has locked in $4 million of interim funding through an interest free, non-recourse loan from ACIIG.

The company said the loan allows it to commence an extensive drilling program at the company’s Browns Range Heavy Rare Earth project while it waits on the completion of a $58 million funding package.

“This non-recourse loan facility now gives us added short-term funding certainty to move ahead with our resource drilling program next month, and we are confident of achieving results that will drive value for shareholders,” Northern Minerals managing director George Bauk said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We have a significant program planned as part of our strategy to expand our current JORC-compliant resource estimate of 10,500 tonnes total rare earth oxide (TREO) to a target of between 22,000 and 29,000 tonnes TREO.

“The interest free loan reaffirms the commitment of our funding partner and major shareholder to the development of the Browns Range project and demonstrates ACIIG’s confidence in the Northern Minerals team.

“ACIIG shares the company’s vision of Browns Range in playing an important role as a source of HREO for a high demand global market in the near future.”

ACIIG chairman Conglin Yue said his company would continue to help facilitate Northern Minerals’ growth.

“We support Northern Minerals’ management and its development strategy at Browns Range,” Yue said in the announcement.

“We believe our latest investment will be of benefit to all shareholders.”

Northern Minerals expects to receive the funds from the loan facility by 8 April 2013.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Metallica Minerals (ASX: MLM) has received the results of a recently-completed Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) conducted on the company’s 100 per cent-owned SCONI (scandium-cobalt-nickel) project, located northwest of Townsville in Queensland.

The PFS was based on a High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) processing plant treating 200,000 tonnes per annum of high-grade Lucknow scandium laterite resource from the company’s 100 per cent-owned Lucknow deposit.

The Lucknow deposit is a near-surface scandium resource (less than 35 meters depth), which is situated 12 kilometres by road from the company’s proposed Greenvale HPAL plant.

According to the company the project will produce 50 to 65 tonnes per annum of high-purity (greater than 99.9 per cent) scandia over a 20 year life operation.

 

SCONI project locality and regional setting. Source: Company announcement

 

“The PFS supports the company’s strategy of focussing on the SCONI project where it has the opportunity to potentially become the world’s first, major long-term reliable producer of scandium from a primary scandium deposit,” Metallica Minerals managing director Andrew Gillies said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Metallica explained SCONI Phase 1 has been designed as a commercial stand-alone project, which has been supported by the economic results from the PFS.

The company is confident Phase 1 could lead to a development decision for the, much larger, Phase 2 brownfields expansion at a later date, subject to economic conditions at that time.

Phase 2 is anticipated to process 750,000tpa (in addition to the SCONI Phase 1 of 200,000tpa) producing nickel-cobalt and scandium products from the company’s SCONI Southern Resources.

“The PFS has shown SCONI Phase 1 (scandium only) to have attractive economics with solid upside potential,” Gillies continued.

“In addition, it is an ideal precursor for the much larger potential full scale Phase 2 nickel-cobalt-scandium operation proposed as future major expansion seeking to maximise the utilisation of the SCONI nickel cobalt scandium resource base.

“Scandium production could then be substantially expanded and project life extended.”

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Rumble Resources (ASX: RTR) has acquired a large strategic holding adjacent to the Top Up Rise project of Corazon Mining (ASX: CZN).

Rumble Resources explained its new Leyland project consists of three tenement applications covering a total area of 1305 square kilometres.

 

Map showing tenement holding of the Leyland project. Source: Company announcement

 

The company claims the region is prospective for large Iron Oxide Copper Gold systems and provided the Top Up Rise project as an example indicating it has a large untested gravity anomaly, which is similar in size and more intense than the anomaly at Olympic Dam in South Australia.

Corazon recently announced that exploration is underway at its Top Up Rise project, with a ground gravity survey underway, which will be followed-up with a maiden drilling program in April/May 2013.

The area has undergone previous exploration by BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) (1996 to 1999) and more recently by Toro Energy (ASX: TOE).

Toro Energy completed rock chip sampling on an adjacent tenement, which returned significant iron up to 56 per cent with rare earths up to 4 per cent TRE and anomalous copper (639 parts per million) and uranium oxide (82 parts per million).