A-Cap board from L-R (back row): John Fisher-Stamp, Paul Ingram, Michael Liu. L-R (front row): Zhu Chenghu, Shen Angang, Niu Jijing.
Blackham Resources and A-Cap Resources have signed a farm-in joint venture (JV) agreement over the Wiluna cobalt-nickel project in Western Australia.
China-based, ASX-listed A-Cap will acquire a 75 per cent interest in the Wiluna project for $11 million.
A-Cap, which is best-known for its large uranium deposits in Botswana, will pay out an initial $2.8 million for a 20 per cent JV interest.
A follow-up payment of $500,000 within two years will see its interest rise to 55 per cent, and a third to 75 per cent on the condition of a $1 million cash payment, the issue of $1.5 million in A-Cap shares and completion of the project’s definitive feasibility study (DFS) within three years.
“Blackham is delighted to have partnered with A-Cap to add value to the sizeable Wiluna Cobalt Nickel Project,” Blackham chairman Milan Jerkovic said.
“This transaction is consistent with Blackham’s previous stated strategy of divesting non-core assets allowing it to focus on its Matilda-Wiluna gold operation.”
A-Cap intends to infill the resource with a drilling campaign that will update its current JORC 2004 mineral resource to more modern JORC 2012 levels.
The project’s current inferred resource, which was determined by a previous operator in 2005, stands at 80.5Mt at an average 0.77 per cent nickel and 0.058 per cent cobalt at a 0.5 per cent nickel cut-off grade.
A-Cap chairman Shen Angang said, “[The] the A-Cap board continues to engage with potential strategic investors resident in China who are working with A-Cap to support its capital management plan for new cobalt projects acquisition and initial resource exploration work.”
In addition to the JV announcement, Blackham Resources released its 2018 full-year report, posting a $20 million overall loss.
The report showed an increase in revenues of 150 per cent to $118,252 and a 79 per cent rise in gold production to 70,565oz.
