Commodities, Copper, Exploration/Development, Gold, News

OZ Minerals finished with Jericho and Eloise

OZ

OZ Minerals has offloaded its joint venture interests in the Jericho and Eloise copper-gold projects in Queensland after exploration didn’t meet the company’s requirements.

Demetallica, a subsidiary of Minotaur Exploration, will take possession of OZ’s 80 per cent and 70 per cent respective stakes in Jericho and Eloise for consideration of $6.6 million, involving a deposit and future Demetallica initial public offering (IPO).

The sale also consists of deferred consideration of up to $US8.82 million ($12.3m), calculated at a rate of $US0.04 per pound of payable copper of between 200,000 and 300,000 tonnes of contained copper.

A further $2.75 million will be payable upon completion of a positive pre-feasibility study regarding the Jericho and Eloise project areas.

OZ announced a maiden mineral resource estimate for Jericho in July 2020, consisting of 9.1 million tonnes at 1.4 per cent copper and 0.3 grams per tonne of gold.

OZ managing director and chief executive officer Andrew Cole said the findings at Jericho didn’t meet the expectations needed to continue with the project.

“Ground EM (electromagnetic) proved to be effective in the search for buried, non-magnetic but conductive minerals systems; Minotaur and OZ Minerals discovered copper and gold mineralisation at the Jericho prospect late in 2017,” he said.

“Subsequent drilling during 2018-2019 led to a maiden resource being released to the market in mid-2020.

“Whilst a discovery, the resource at Jericho did not meet our requirements to continue so we have agreed for our partner’s subsidiary, Demetallica, to gain 100 per cent ownership of the project.”

Cole said OZ continually assesses its exploration portfolio to ensure it aligns with the company’s growth mindset.

“Our exploration strategy is to partner with junior explorers who bring new ideas and regional expertise in a way that allows us to test theories and quickly determine the attractiveness of a project,” he said.

“This is a good example of how our partnering approach allows us to continually turn over our portfolio of exploration projects as we search for our next material discovery.”

The sale completion is subject to regulatory approvals and the requirement for Demetallica to complete a successful capital raising of $10 million or more as of 15 April 2022.

OZ recently announced an expansion of its Peake and Denison base metals tenements in South Australia as part of a fresh farm-in agreement with Minotaur.

Located on the edge of the Gawler Craton, Peake and Denison is an under-explored section of South Australia where only 23 historic drill holes have been penetrated on prospective zones across the 2500-square-kilometre region.

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