Strait Gold Corp. has signed a binding agreement with Teck Peru S.A., a subsidiary of Teck Resources, giving Teck Peru an option to earn up to a 75% interest in Strait’s Alicia copper-gold property in Peru by spending up to $30 million on exploration at Alicia or delivering a pre-feasibility study and making $500,000 in cash option payments. As a condition of entering into the agreement, Teck made a $600,000 equity investment into Strait Gold.
Strait Gold holds a 55% interest, with an option to earn a 100% interest, in the Alicia property, which lies within the Andahuaylas-Yauri porphyry-skarn copper belt approximately 500 km southeast of Lima. Drilling at Alicia in late 2010 and early 2011 demonstrated robust copper-gold mineralization in several skarn zones. Rock and soil sampling of porphyry intrusives associated with the skarns has returned anomalous copper values over an area more than 3.4 km long and roughly 900 m wide that coincides with geophysical anomalies detected in airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys.
The option agreement defines annual spending requirements for Teck Peru between now and the end of 2018. During the first option period, Teck Peru can earn an initial 45% interest in the Alicia property by spending $4 million on exploration by December 2013, half of which is committed to be spent by year-end 2012. (www.straitgold.com)
