Metals Exploration acquires prospective Philippine gold project

Summary

• Acquisition of a majority and controlling interest in a highly prospective exploration licence covering 16 200 ha on Luzon, Philippines, approximately 200 km north of the Company’s Runruno mine, in the Cordillera region, which is a prolific gold belt in the Philippines, with proven mineral endowment, having produced over 40 Moz of gold historically.
• Acquisition consideration comprises US$1 600 000 cash plus the issue of options to subscribe for up to 41 000 000 Ordinary Shares, to acquire:
  • 72.5% of the issued share capital of Yamang Mineral Corp., a Philippine incorporated company that holds the exploration tenement EXPA-000129; and
  • the entire issued share capital of Yamang Mineral Corp Pte. Ltd., a Singapore incorporated company that, subject to final documentation, will be granted 100% of the rights to process any ore produced from mining operations within the Abra Tenement area. Other assets include cash of approximately US$1 130 000, a purpose-renovated drill rig and drill supplies with an initial cost of approximately US$125 000.
• The issue of the Abra Tenement has been approved and the licence is exploration ready, subject only to final agreement with local communities within the Philippines’ National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) framework; with this requirement expected to be satisfied in the near-term following positive discussions with local stakeholders.
• The Abra Tenement includes several drill ready target areas (including within Lacub and Manikbel) and numerous areas of historical artisanal mining operations.
• Initial planned exploration work programmes will include geochemistry, geophysics, mapping, and review of historical data, intended to lead to a drill programme which is currently expected to commence during 2H24.
• It is intended that community and NCIP initiatives will also be put in place concurrent with commencement of exploration activities to ensure the Company’s social licence to explore and develop the Abra Tenements.

Steven Smith, Interim Chairman of Metals Exploration, commented:

“Our strategy is to grow MTL within the Philippines and ultimately the broader region, leveraging our established in-country knowledge, experience, and strong technical team.

Our team at Runruno has set the bar for high performance, locally-run and managed operations, and this gives us a significant competitive advantage as we focus on the development of new projects in the country.

The acquisition of the YMC Group is the first step in our progress to a new future for the Company. The Abra Tenement has the potential to provide an extensive project growth pipeline for MTL, with multiple prospective targets in both gold and copper over a significant area, in a geological region of scale and with historical production. If we have the exploration success we are targeting, we aim to focus on developing a high-grade, smaller-scale gold production-ready project as soon as possible, in addition to advancing our other targets.

YMC is the first of a number of targets within our purview and we look forward to providing further updates on both our exploration progress and project expansion efforts, as results are obtained.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/12012024/metals-exploration-acquires-prospective-philippine-gold-project/