Aquiline to acquire Newmont’s Calcatreu gold project

Aquiline Resources (AQI-V) has signed a letter of intent to acquire Newmont Mining‘s Calcatreu gold project in Argentina.

Aquiline can assume the property by paying just over US$2 million over three years, with US$100,000 due on the deal’s closing, and payments every six months thereafter. Newmont will retain a 2.5% net smelter return royalty on gold, silver and base metal production from the property.

Newmont will also have the right to back into a 60% stake in Calcatreu, up until the initiation of a feasibility study. To re-acquire its stake, Newmont would have to fork over an amount equal to three times Aquiline’s exploration and development costs. The back in right excludes three mineral claims hosting the Vein 49 deposit. Aquiline has committed to at least US$500,000 worth of exploration over three years on the portion of the property covered by the back-in right.

Calcatreu is home to a low sulphidation epithermal gold system. The property lies about 200 km northeast of Meridian Gold‘s El Desquite property in the province of Rio Negro in north-central Patagonia. Aquiline says Calcatreu geologic setting is similar to El Desquite’s.

Vein 49, which outcrops over a 2-km strike length, is the best of a group of 11 epithermal quartz vein outcrops identified on the property. Trenching by Normandy Mining returned up to 27 metres running 3.6 grams gold and 14 grams silver per tonne, plus 24.5 metres of 5.4 grams gold and 34 grams silver. Initial diamond drilling yielded 2.9-4.2 grams gold, and 23-32 grams silver over widths from 22-40 metres.

While most of the previous work at Calcatreu focussed on Vein 49, the property also hosts several other epithermal systems Trenching on the Trinidad prospect ran up to 3 grams gold over 13 metres, and 77 of 226 surface grab samples from the Nabel prospect exceeded 1 gram gold. One trench returned 4 grams gold over 15 metres.

Aquiline plans an independent technical review of the project as soon as possible.