Equity Metals (EQTY.V) has signed an agreement with Origen Resources whereby Equity can acquire full ownership in the Arlington property, a gold asset in British Columbia’s Boundary District. Equity can acquire the project by making total cash payments of C$130,000, spend C$250,000 on exploration and issue C$200,000 worth of stock within seven days of the regulatory approval. The company will also have to issue either C$200,000 in stock or 2 million shares (whichever is the greater amount) by the first anniversary of the regulatory approval. Origen will also retain a 2% NSR, of which 1% can be repurchased by Equity for C$1M in cash.
The Arlington project is a gold-copper-silver project in British Columbia’s West Kettle River Valley, approximately 65 kilometers south of Kelowna. The first discoveries of mineralization date back to the late 1800s while the nearby Beaverdell camp produced approximately 35 million ounces of silver and 16,500 ounces of gold. Further South, just across the border in the USA, the Buckhorn mine produced 1.3 million ounces of gold over a 10 year mine life, and was operated by Kinross Gold (K.TO, KGC).
Recent exploration activities on the property include rock chip sampling and grab sampling, several phases of soil sampling and these sampling programs yielded some high grade gold results with one grab sample returning 11.7 g/t gold, 211 g/t silver and 3.22% copper.
Equity Metals will kick off the exploration activities focusing on a soil sampling program, geological mapping, prospecting and potentially a trenching program to define drill targets (which could then potentially be drilled next year).
The acquisition is a surprise as the company’s flagship Silver Queen project is obviously much more advanced and we had hoped to see all attention (and money) would continue to be spent on Silver Queen. The Fall drill program at Silver Queen is in full swing and twelve holes have now been completed on the No3 Vein North target, for a total of just over 4,100 meters of drilling. There will be two additional holes at No3 Vein North and Equity has confirmed it will drill four follow up holes at the Camp Deposit and Camp North targets.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Equity Metals. Equity is a sponsor of the website. Please read the disclaimer.
