Aston Resources
Aston Resources’ joint venture partner Itochu has waived its pre-emptive rights and consented to the terms of the proposed sale of 10% of the Maules Creek project in New South Wales to J-Power Australia.
In October 2011, Aston announced that it had entered into a conditional agreement for the sale of a 10% stake in the Maules Creek project for $A370 million payable in a single tranche upon completion.
The transaction also includes a long-term coal sales agreement between the Maules Creek joint venture and Electric Power Development Co (J-Power).
J–Power Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of J-Power, which is headquartered in Japan.
J-Power is a major wholesale power producer and owns and operates seven coal-fired thermal power stations across Japan as the largest user of thermal coal in the country.
Itochu has consented to the terms of the long-term coal sales agreement and waived its pre-emptive rights, subject to the asset sale completing in its current form on or before June 30, 2012 or such later date as is agreed by the parties.
U308
U3O8 Limited’s 100%-owned subsidiary Piche Resources has secured a joint venture agreement with MH Argentina SA on the Cerro Chacon gold silver project in Argentina.
The Cerro Chacon Project consists of 11 tenements, covering an area of approximately 419sq.km, in the province of Chubut, in the Patagonia region of Argentina.
The project area is prospective for low sulfidation epithermal gold-silver mineralisation with several very significant anomalies having previously been identified. Epithermal vein systems up to 2km long have been followed on the surface with rock chip samples returning gold value to 9.8gpt gold.
Additionally, this and other prospects within the joint venture are anomalous in silver, base metals and other minerals indicative of this style of mineralisation. No drilling has been undertaken on the project to date.
Piche Resources has the right to earn 60% in the joint venture by spending $US500,000 during the first three years.
Piche Resources is able to earn 100% of the project within 10 years subject to conditions which include mining activities having commenced.
If Piche meets the conditions set out above and exercises its options to earn 100% of the project, MHA will be granted a 3% net smelter return royalty over the property.
Mesa Exploration Corp
Passport Potash has exercised its right to purchase Mesa Exploration’s 2% royalty on the Holbrook Basin project in the US.
The $US300,000 in proceeds will be used to advance Mesa’s Bounty project and for general working capital.
The Bounty project is a surface potash brine deposit located in the Great Salt Lake Desert of western Utah. The project is 15 miles north of Intrepid Potash's Wendover operation, a potash mine which is chemically and physically analogous to the deposit at the Bounty project.
The Wendover mine has been in production for 75 years utilising a system of potash brine collection ditches and solar evaporation ponds, with annual production of 100,000t of potash and 200,000t of magnesium chloride.
