28th May 2014 09:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Mariana Resources Ltd Wednesday said it has optioned three new strategic tenements linked to its Los Cisnes Project in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina.
The AIM-quoted exploration and development company, which is focused in Peru and southern Argentina, said it has entered a binding letter of intent to acquire a 60% interest in Tierra Exploration SA's three properties next to Los Cisnes, which cover an area of 14,900 hectares. The deal will be done by way of an earn-in option based on the company paying direct exploration costs of USD1 million over four years and making USD2 million worth of share payments to Tierra.
The company said it made the decision to acquire nearby licences after test results and mapping from its gold and silver exploration at the Los Cisnes site showed that strong mineralised trends appear to extend beyond the boundaries of the site.
It has 15 days from the signing of the letter to complete due diligence.
The company is expected to pay USD100,000 to Tierra when it signs the option agreement, and then incremental payments on the yearly anniversaries of the first payment, made up of the cash exploration commitments and share payments.
Trenching is currently underway in testing at the Los Cisnes site, where multiple zones of outcropping gold and silver mineralisation have been discovered with regions including a 0.8 metre space at 3.0 grams per tonne of gold and 3,849 grams per tonne of silver through rock chip sampling.
"Our focus for the coming months will be to develop drill targets on our 3 main projects areas in the eastern Deseado which includes Los Cisnes, Bozal and our Las Calandrias project where we have defined a 519,000 gold equivalent resource, and hopefully moving to scout drilling at the end of the year," Chief Executive Officer Glen Parsons said in a statement.
Mariana Resources shares were down 1.6% to 3.27 pence on Wednesday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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