Perth-based explorer Todd River Resources will focus its resources and management time on its Western Australia nickel-copper-platinum group element portfolio with the sale of the Manbarrum zinc-lead-silver in the Northern Territory to Boab Metals. Todd River will receive A$500,000 of Boab shares and retain a 1.25 per cent net smelter return royalty under a sale agreement on the promising NT project.
The strategic sale paves the way for Todd River to focus on developing other key assets including the Berkshire Valley nickel-copper-PGE project in WA’s south west Yilgarn Craton. The company earlier this month emphasised its intent on maintaining an aggressive nickel-copper-PGE exploration focus on the “highly prospective Julimar style” project at Berkshire Valley.
Todd River had more than $7 million in the bank at the end of March this year.
Under the signed binding agreement with Boab, Todd will remain leveraged to the Manbarrum project’s upside, according to Managing Director Will Dix. The $500,000 of Boab shares will be issued at 42.14c/share – roughly in line with today’s price, which capitalises Boab at about $62.5 million.
The 1.15 per cent net smelter return or “NSR” on future mineral sales from the Manbarrum project can be bought back by Boab at an agreed market value and subject to the completion by Boab of a pre-feasibility study on the Manbarrum project.
Boab will acquire 100 per cent of the project including mining leases, mining lease applications and exploration licences. An impressive database with results of more than 37,000 metres of drilling, geophysical and geochemical surveys and conceptual open-pit mining studies is included in the sale.
Mr Dix said: “We are delighted to have been able to conclude a transaction on the Manbarrum project with Boab. Through our new holding of Boab Metals shares and retained NSR royalty we remain leveraged to the project’s upside while being able to focus on our core assets in both Western Australia and the Northern Territory.”
The Manbarrum project is located 70km north-east of Kununurra, just east of the Northern Territory/Western Australia border, and only 25km east of Boab’s flagship Sorby Hills lead-silver-zinc project.
A total of four tenements cover 175 sq.km on the eastern margin of the Bonaparte Basin, with Sorby Hills lying on the western margin in a distinctly similar geological setting characteristic of Mississippi Valley type or “MVT” mineralisation. In an acquisition set to complement Boab’s landholding in the Top End, mineral resources have been identified at two Manbarrum deposits, Sandy Creek and Djibitgun, providing Boab with an opportunity to improve economics at its Sorby Hills project.
Sandy Creek has reported JORC 2012 compliant resources totalling 22.5 milling tonnes grading 1.8 per cent zinc, 0.5 per cent lead and 4.6 g/t silver, while Djibitgun has a historical 20Mt at 16g/t silver reported under the JORC 2004 code.
For Todd River the strategic transaction frees the purse strings to charge ahead and align its nickel-copper-PGE exploration focus to the newly discovered Berkshire Valley and the Nanutarra and Nerramyne projects in WA.
The company recently announced extensive nickel-copper-PGE anomalism had been uncovered over the Eastern Intrusive Trend within its Berkshire Valley project, east of Moora in Western Australia.
Results of shallow auger sampling over the 7km-long Eastern Intrusive Trend delineated two priority targets returned values of up to 9,300 parts per million nickel, 900 ppm copper and 105.2 parts per billion platinum and palladium.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
