Almadex Minerals Ltd, an exploration company with a large mineral portfolio, has announced the termination of the option agreement declared on September 14th, 2020, with Makara Mining Corp in concern with the Davis or Paradise Valley property situated in Nye County, Nevada.
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The termination of the option agreement by Almadex is as per its terms. Almadex consolidated the Davis or Paradise Valley area in 2019 by optioning the Davis property from the basic owners, where the property adjoins the Paradise Valley property staked by Almadex’s predecessor company. Then, Almadex optioned the joint properties to Makara in 2020.
These properties currently include 302 claims encompassing around 2,400 hectares with various targets, situated around 8 miles to the southeast of Gabbs, Nevada, and 5 miles to the northeast of the Paradise Peak gold mine, which was active between 1984 and 1994.
In geological terms, these properties are situated in the Walker Lane, a structural zone of primarily northwest-trending, strike-slip faults located along the western edge of the Great Basin that hosts considerable, historic, and presently producing epithermal valuable metal deposits such as the Round Mountain gold deposit, the Comstock Lode at Virginia City, Tonopah, Goldfield, and Paradise Peak.
The Davis property encompasses an area of hydrothermal alteration that hosts gold-silver zones and veins that have undergone historic mining and exploration drilling. The property has been historically investigated, with numerous targets drilled by various operators.
USSRAM Exploration owned the property from 1979 to around 2004, and several exploration and drilling programs were performed on the property during that time. One of the targets examined over that period was the Davis Mine area, including 11 drill holes to analyze mineralization near the shaft of the historic Davis mine.
In recent years, another operator drilled further holes in the same general area of the earlier drilling. Although this historic Davis Mine area drilling cannot be confirmed by Almadex, as it was not completed in line with NI 43-101 and thus must not be trusted upon, it offers evident exploration focus.
One of the considerable intercepts from this historic drilling program is stated to have returned 40 ft (12.2 m) of 0.18 oz/t gold (6.2 g/t gold) and 0.62 oz/t silver (21 g/t silver). The strike and dip of the Davis vein were elucidated by the historic operators but cannot be confirmed by Almadex at this time. Therefore, true widths cannot be approximated or verified by Almadex.
Consolidation of this land position was done in 2019 by Almadex; the company, either by itself or as an operator under the currently terminated Makara option agreement, has made great advances in determining drill targets and currently holds the needed drilling permits.
The needs (as amended) concerning Almadex’s option to obtain 100% of the Davis property from the basic owner are listed below (all US$):
- November 2019: $100,000 (paid)
- August 2020: $25,000 (paid)
- May 2021: $25,000 (paid)
- May 2022: $50,000
- May 2023: $50,000
- May 2024: $100,000
- May 2025: The greater of US$200,000, or the value of 140 ounces of gold.
When the above amounts are paid, which could be expedited, Almadex will have the option to acquire the Davis property claims for an amount equal to the greater of US$250,000 or 180 troy ounces of gold, subject to a 2.0% NSR production royalty, which can be decreased to 1.0% by paying the higher of US$2 million or 1,400 troy ounces of gold.
On being decreased to a 1.0% NSR royalty, the leftover 1.0% NSR royalty shall be capped at an amount equal to the higher of US$6 million and 4,000 troy ounces of gold.
At present, Almadex is investigating its alternatives for achieving further progress of this excellent epithermal target.