Raiden’s Kalabak farm out frees it to focus on Australian Pilbara portfolio

Raiden is now free to focus attention on its Australian projects after reaching a binding agreement to farm out up to 75% in the Kalabak copper-gold project in Bulgaria to Velocity Minerals.

Under the agreement, Velocity has the option to earn the stake by refunding the company for all environmental and Ministerial work guarantees, completing at least 5,000m of reverse circulation or diamond drilling, and delivering an Inferred Resource estimate in accordance with the non-JORC NI 43-101 standard.

Should the option be exercised, the two companies will form a joint venture with Velocity managing and operating the exploration program at Kalabak.

This will allow Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN FRA:YM4) to focus on advancing its Mt Sholl nickel-copper-PGE deposit and evaluating the lithium potential of its landholding in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

“This transaction continues management’s delivery of reducing company costs, strengthening the balance sheet and providing exploration upside for the company and shareholders,” managing director Dusko Ljubojevic said.

“Management remains focused on advancing the Mt Sholl Ni-Cu-PGE deposit, where metallurgical evaluations are currently under way, as well as, evaluating the lithium potential of the company’s Pilbara assets including the Roebourne project, which is adjacent to Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) Andover lithium discovery.”

He added that the company continues to progress potential transactions relating to its non-core portfolio with an aim to close them throughout the rest of 2023.

Kalabak copper-gold project

The Kalabak licence is located in the Haskovo Province of southern Bulgaria and just a short distance from Velocity’s Rozino epithermal gold deposit.

It covers highly prospective Tertiary rocks in the underexplored Bulgarian portion of the Western Tethyan Metallogenic Belt.

Limited historical exploration in the area by previous explorers and recent discoveries in the same belt outside of Bulgaria have indicated that Kalabak is highly prospective for copper porphyry and epithermal gold mineralisation.

Its prospectivity has received a further boost from recent gold discoveries at Dundee Precious Metals’ Ada Tepe epithermal gold deposit and the Rozino deposit.

Should Velocity earn its 75% stake, Raiden will then have the option to co-finance its portion of further expenditure to maintain its position.

If either party dilutes below a 15% interest in the joint venture, their interest will automatically convert to a 1% net smelter royalty with the majority having the right to purchase half the royalty for C$1.5m.

Lithium focus

Raiden has its eyes pinned on the lithium potential of its Pilbara permits.

Besides its tenements near the increasingly attractive Andover discovery, the company also recently moved to pick up the lithium-caesium-tantalum rights for the Arrow project in the Pilbara, for which it already owns the remaining mineral rights.

This article was developed in collaboration with Raiden Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.