First Quantum picking up Mauritanian copper property

First Quantum Minerals (FM-T) has come to a deal to acquire an 80% interest in a copper-gold project in western Mauritania.

The agreement would see First Quantum pay US$10 million to Guelb Moghrein Mines d’Akjout and Wadi Al Rawda Industrial Investments, which would give it 80% ownership of the operating company that would hold the property.

The 7,300-sq.-km project area is 250 km northeast of Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital, and covers the Guelb Moghrein deposit, a near-surface copper-gold deposit. A 1998 resource estimate put the deposit’s size at 23.7 million tonnes grading 1.88% copper and 1.41 grams gold per tonne, measured and indicated.

The estimate, which used a 1%-copper cutoff grade, met Australian JORC standards, but First Quantum plans to have the calculation reviewed to meet National Instrument 43-101 criteria.

The deposit is in shallow-dipping mafic volcanic rocks with interbedded sediments and has a known strike length of 600 metres. Drill testing has gone to 190 metres, and the mineralized body averages about 60 metres thick.

Under the deal, First Quantum pays the vendors US$2 million seven days after signing a final agreement. Another US$3 million is due one year after signing and US$5 million is payable once production starts, but no later than two years after signing. The deal also needs the Mauritanian government’s consent.