Fury Gold buys Newmont’s half of Éléonore South project in Quebec

Fury Gold Mines (TSX, NYSE: FURY) is spending $4.3 million to buy Newmont’s (NYSE: NEM, TSE: NGT) half of the Éléonore South project next to the mine of the same name as well as a nearby project in Quebec.

Fury will control all of Éléonore South for $3 million and buy Newmont’s 30.4 million shares of Sirios Resources for $1.3 million. It holds the Cheechoo deposit to the east of Éléonore in an area of gold mineralization about 650 km north of Montreal. 

Newmont said last week it planned to sell six non-core assets to help cut US$1 billion in debt in the near term as it digests its US$19.2 billion acquisition of Newcrest. Assets on the block include the Éléonore mine, the Musselwhite and Porcupine mines in Ontario, and the Coffee project in the Yukon Territory.

“Our team has historically ranked Éléonore South as one of our more prolific targets for discovery,” Fury Gold Mines CEO Tim Clark said in a news release. “We expect this to provide a clearer pathway for more exploration and potential upside in returns for our investors from this project consolidation and investment in Sirios.”

Prospecting to date has identified two distinct styles of mineralization within the project, Fury said. It holds structurally controlled quartz veins hosted within sedimentary rocks similar to the high-grade mineralization observed at the Éléonore mine as well as intrusion-related disseminated gold mineralization similar to that seen at the low-grade bulk tonnage Cheechoo deposit.

Numerous gold in-till anomalies remain undrilled throughout the project and will be a focus, Fury said. The bulk of the untested gold anomalies are similar in characteristics to the Cheechoo style of mineralization.

The site’s JT and Moni prospects represent a potential higher-grade style of intrusion-related gold mineralization with historical drilling intercepting 53.3 metres of 4.2 grams  gold per tonne; 6 metres of 49.5 grams gold and 23.8 metres of 3.1 grams gold, the company said.

Fury is also advancing its main Eau Claire project 57 km south of the Éléonore mine. Recent drilling returned 3.5 metres of 31.7 grams gold at Eau Claire’s Hinge target.

Shares in Fury Gold closed half a cent lower at 44¢ apiece in Toronto on Monday, valuing the company at $63.4 million. They’ve traded in a 52-week range of 42¢ to 93¢.