Anova Metals offloads non-core gold project for $9m

Anova Metals (ASX:AWV) will divest its Second Fortune gold mine and the greater Linden gold project in Western Australia to the Linden Gold Alliance for $9m.

Anova will also receive a net smelter royalty (NSR) of 1.5 per cent on every ounce of gold produced from the Linden project after a total of 75,000 ounces have been produced.

This is capped at a total royalty payable of $1 million, following which the NSR will drop to 1 per cent.

Linden Gold Alliance is a company controlled by key stakeholders associated with Mako Mining (Mako) and MTM Group.

Anova managing director Dr. Mingyan Wang said the sale crystallises value from a non-core asset and allows it to focus on the Big Springs gold project in Nevada.

“While the Linden gold project is a quality asset, the re-development and operation of the Second Fortune gold mine does not align with Anova’s skill-set and strategy to focus on, and rapidly add value, to the Big Springs gold project in Nevada,” he said.

Besides Second Fortune, the Linden project contains numerous small gold workings worked from early to mid 1900’s.

Gold project acquisitions

Carnavale Resources (ASX:CAV) is proceeding with the acquisition of a 80 per cent stake in the Kookynie project in the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, from private company Western Resources.

The project is located in the central portion of the historical mining centre, which has produced over 650,000 ounces of gold from high-grade lodes.

Neighbouring explorer Metalicity (ASX:MCT) have been returning encouraging exploration results, with recent drilling hitting 6m at 4.54 grams per tonne (g/t gold) from 24m and 7m at 3.31g/t gold that extended the mineralisation footprint at their project.

The previously mined gold deposits in the area occur on structural trends that are interpreted to continue into the project area while a review of past drilling indicates only limited drilling has occurred within the tenements.

Carnavale plans to define sufficient high-grade resources that can be mined and transported to one of the five nearby processing plants.

It intends to carry out new detailed airborne aeromagnetic data to better define the prospective structural trends known to host gold mineralisation immediately along strike; aircore drilling to define shallow bedrock mineralisation; and reverse circulation drilling to define potential gold resources.

Meanwhile, Victory Mines (ASX:VIC) has completed the acquisition of Serena Minerals’ rights to earn a 80 per cent interest in the historical producing Coogee gold project near Kambalda, Western Australia.

The company can earn the interest by spending a total of $2.1m on exploration over three stages.

Stage 1 has already been completed, giving Victory a 10 per cent interest in the project.

Stage 2 requires a further $600,000 in exploration by 31 March 2022 to earn a further 40 per cent interest while Stage 3 requires an additional $1m expenditure by 31 March 2024 to earn the remaining 30 per cent interest.

Upon earning the 80 per cent interest, Victory would then be required to solely fund the Coogee project until a decision to mine is made, which will require the delineation of a gold resource of at least 22,000 ounces to a bankable standard.

The company plans to start a 4,000m reverse circulation program in mid-September.