Aurumin Ltd (ASX:AUN) has made some big strides across its portfolio with joint ventures enhancing iron ore and gold exploration activities.
First up, the company has entered into a binding agreement with Newcam Minerals Pty Ltd to explore the iron ore potential at its Central Sandstone Project.
In addition to this, Aurumin’s joint venture partner Kula Gold Ltd (ASX:KGD) continues to advance exploration at the Mt Palmer Gold Project.
Iron ore rights granted
At the Central Sandstone Project, Aurumin has granted Newcam an exclusive six-month option to earn a 50% interest in the iron ore rights on granted mining leases.
In return, Newcam will pay A$500,000 upfront and fund 50% of exploration expenditures during the option period.
Should Newcam exercise the option, it will pay an additional A$500,000 and provide up to A$5 million in funding for production start-up activities.
This agreement allows Aurumin to unlock the potential iron ore resources in the region while maintaining focus on its core gold assets.
Iron ore "a bonus"
Aurumin managing director Brad Valiukas said: “The iron ore at Sandstone is a bonus, and this potential joint venture with Newcam can accelerate our activity, reduce the need for funding and remove logistical hurdles for export, de-risking the project overall.
“Importantly for Aurumin shareholders, by joint venturing the iron ore we maintain far more upside and potential profit compared to a royalty-based transaction.
“Aurumin remains focused on generating the critical mass required for future gold production at our Sandstone Operations.
“The next step for both the iron ore and gold is drilling and we can now get going on a combined program.”
Mt Palmer going well
Meanwhile, Aurumin’s joint venture with Kula Gold at Mt Palmer continues to show promise, with results back from the Mt Palmer East prospect following aircore drilling.
Historical aircore drilling revealed high-grade intersections, including 3 metres at 9.3 g/t gold, with a standout 1-metre interval at 102 g/t.
The project, right near Marvel Loch’s processing infrastructure, benefits from a north-south magnetic high structure extending over 8 kilometres.
Plans are underway for reverse circulation (RC) drilling to further investigate the magnetic anomaly and gold potential.
Kula managing director Ric Dawson said of the Mt Palmer progress: “This prospect was dismissed and subsequently overlooked due to perceived paleochannel geometry.
“More recent exploration also replicated the previous theory and did not explore significantly into the basement rocks for a primary source of the gold mineralisation obtained in the air core drilling.
“The magnetic signature that is coincident with these gold assays warrants future drilling.
“This prospect is being advanced to drill-ready status for a planned reverse circulation program.”