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 a near-surface copper-gold deposit known as Guelb Moghrein. 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 60 metres in thickness. Deeper drilling has not closed off the mineralized zone.
The mineralization appears to be of the iron oxide-copper-gold type, with magnetite, chalcopyrite, and cubanite, and accessory gold, cobaltite and arsenopyrite. There is extensive carbonate metasomatism around the mineralization, in stockworks, vein systems, and lens- and sheet-like bodies.
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 consent of the Mauritanian government.
Wadi Al Rawda, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, bought into the project after Australian-based General Gold Resources (now Yilgarn Gold) sold its half-interest in Guelb Moghrein Mines as part of a 2002 restructuring. Wadi Al Rawda also bought out a share held by Societe Arab des Mines de l’Inchiri, a Mauritanian para-statal company.
Guelb Moghrein was discovered in 1964 by Charter Consolidated during drilling of a soil copper anomaly. A state-owned company mined the deposit’s near-surface oxide resources between 1967 and 1978. Later work by General Gold took the property as far as a feasibility study; the study considered the potential for reprocessing oxide tailings for gold.
The property is near a paved road. Akjout, the nearest town, has an airport and basic facilities.
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