A US$1-million private placement in
The giant gold producer bought 1 million units of the junior at $1 each and, at the same time, secured an option to acquire up to a 70% interest in any Opawica property in the Valle del Cura-El Indio region of Argentina.
Barrick is planning a mine at its Pascua gold project in neighboring Chile, and seeking additional ground in the geological belt straddling the Chile-Argentina border. The major recently let expire a takeover bid for
Opawica owns, or has under option, more than 150,000 ha of properties in Argentina. To earn a 70% interest, Barrick must make cash and exploration expenditures valued at 250% of all costs incurred by Opawica on a specific property. In the meantime, Opawica must spend at least US$500,000 on exploration over the next two field seasons at its property holdings.
Closer to home, Opawica secured an option to acquire 40% of
To earn the 40% interest, the junior must pay Falco $900,000 in cash and exploration advances. It also has the option to earn a 40% stake in mineral rights below 1,000 metres on the Falco 2 property, situated between Whitestar 1 and 2. To earn this interest, Opawica must spend $1 million on underground exploration and development within five years.
The agreement calls for Falco to operate a $600,000 work program on the combined land package. The drill targets believed to have the best potential at Chance and the adjoining Opawica properties lie at depth.
Opawica holds nine other properties in the region. Falco has rights to earn a 70% interest in these by spending $200,000 on exploration and making $100,000 in property payments. Drill targets have been outlined on three of the properties. The current program will drill-test at least one of the EM anomalies.
Falco also bought 500,000 units of Opawica at $1 per unit, consisting of one share and one share purchase warrant.
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