Fremont Gold options Vardenis project in Armenia

Fremont Gold (TSXV: FRE; US-OTC: FRERF) will earn up to a 100% stake in Mendia Resources, an Armenian company that holds the exploration licence over the Vardenis copper-gold project in central Armenia.

The Vancouver-based junior has also entered into an agreement with Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM) to purchase all its exploration data on the project, which it explored between 2015 and 2018.

“The historic exploration work undertaken at Vardenis provides Fremont with a strong head start to efficiently and effectively advance the project,” Dennis Moore, Fremont’s president and CEO stated in a Tuesday press release. “Drill targeting will obviously be more straightforward than if starting from scratch.”

Vardenis is a high-sulphidation copper-gold property and possibly a copper porphyry mineralized system, Fremont says. Vardenis occurs 25 km along strike and in the same Eocene volcanic sequences that host the 3 million oz. Amulsar gold deposit. Amulsar is being developed by Orion Mine Finance, Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX: OR; NYSE: OR) and Resource Capital Fund.

During the time Dundee Precious Metals explored Vardenis, it collected more than 6,000 geochemical soil, rock and stream sediment samples as well as put together a database of 1,246 metres of diamond drilling. According to Fremont, the data outlines a 7-km long gold-in-soil anomaly. In addition, it defined a 3.6-km by 2-km circular copper anomaly about 1.4-km south of the gold anomaly.

Fremont says it will start its first infill drill program in September. In the meantime, it will start detailed short-wave infrared alteration mapping “to determine the hotspots within the mineralized system,” and possibly undertake an IP survey over the circular copper-moly anomaly. It can then integrate the data with results from historic soil geochemistry to come up with the most promising targets, it says.

“After spending the better part of two years seeking opportunities in Armenia, Vardenis was chosen as one of the few projects that could create true shareholder value in a relatively short time frame,” Moore says.

Under the option agreement with Mendia, Fremont has agreed to pay US$350,000 in cash and a total of 2.2 million shares in stages over four and a half years. To Dundee, Fremont has paid $30,000. If it continues the option agreement, it will issue $20,000 worth of shares by Dec. 31, 2024.

In addition to Vardenis, Fremont is pursuing other projects in Armenia, and has applied for an exploration licence over the Urasar area in the north. Geochemical results from Urasar have featured eight surface rock chip and channel samples, which Fremont says ranged from a minimum of 0.1 gram gold per tonne to a maximum of 12.5 grams gold, and averaging 2.65 grams.

The Urasar district was also explored by Soviet government teams in the 1950s through to the early 1970s looking for copper, base metals and gold.

“The Urasar project is one of the few places in the world where one can encounter numerous mineralized outcrops over a strike length of seven kilometers….and with only a few shallow drill holes! I personally find this district to be very exciting given its size, at-surface mineralization and location along the same large-scale structure with a similar geological setting that hosts the world-class Sotk mine.”

Sotk is Armenia’s largest gold mine and is situated near the country’s border with Azerbaijan. Russia’s GPM Gold operates the mine. Sotk was discovered in the early 1950s and has been in operation since 1976.

Moore describes Fremont as a “’first mover’ in this new era of mineral exploration in Armenia.”

“With the anticipated permitting of the Urasar exploration licence, plus the recently signed Vardenis project, Fremont will have two properties capable of hosting world-class mineral deposits in this favourable jurisdiction, positioning the company for significant discovery opportunities and growth.”

Fremont has a market cap of about $3.5 million.

Over the last year its shares have traded in a range of 7¢ and 20¢ and at press time were changing hands at 13.5¢. It has a market capitalization of about $3.5 million.