Canadian-listed exploration junior Pacton Gold is further expanding its footprint in Western Australia’s Pilbara, buying up a strategic portfolio of gold properties from Arrow Minerals.
Pacton – which is advised by Sprott Capital Partners – is seeking to acquire an 80 per cent stake in Arrow Pilbara, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arrow, which holds two exploration licences and two exploration licence applications covering 609km2 in the east Pilbara region in areas close to and adjoining licences held by Novo Resources Corp.
The licences cover various parts of the prospective contact between the older Pilbara granite-greenstone terrain and the overlying Fortescue Group rocks.
According to Arrow, the project is highly prospective for conglomerate and basement gold targets with prospectors discovering several gold nuggets at the project in late 2017.
The Arrow deal represents the second foray into the Pilbara for Pacton after the TSX-V listed company snapped up CTTR Gold Pty Ltd which owns nine exploration licences covering 492km2 in the region earlier this year.
We are pleased to be able to partner with the Arrow Minerals team, who have been able to assemble a significant portfolio of advanced gold projects with excellent prospectivity that will provide key exploration and discovery upside for the shareholders of Pacton,” Pacton Gold Interim President and CEO Alec Pismiris said.
“Pacton’s Pilbara gold project is fast becoming one of the most significant in the Pilbara region.”
Last month, Pacton appointed Sprott Capital Partners, a division of Sprott. Private Wealth LP, to assist with marketing arrangements, including providing strategic capital advice.
Under the terms of the deal, Pacton can earn an initial 51 per cent stake in Arrow through the payment of C$500,000 in cash and C$250,000 in Pacton shares.
Pacton has the option to acquire an additional 29% ownership interest in Arrow Pilbara, increasing its interest to 80%, by meeting certain obligations.
Once Pacton has reached an 80% interest in Arrow Pilbara, Arrow will be free-carried for the first C$5,000,000 of Project expenditure.
Arrow’s Managing Director Steven Michael said Pacton’s arrangement with Sprott gave the company the financial and market expertise to raise sufficient capital to undertake significant exploration work at the Project and its other tenements in the Pilbara.
“Arrow will have direct exposure to the Project through its initial 49% project interest and potential longer-term free carried 20% interest.
In addition, Arrow will continue to benefit through its shareholding in Pacton.”
Mr Michael said the transaction allows Arrow to focus its exploration efforts on the highly prospective Strickland gold project, where a 26,000m drilling programme is underway, and the Malinda Lithium Project, where drilling is scheduled for July 2018.
Shares in Arrow were last trading at 3.1c in morning trade on Friday.