Encounter (ASX: ENR) has confirmed that IGO, following the sole funding of $15m of exploration expenditure on the company’s Yeneena Project in WA, has earned a 70% interest in the Project and a joint venture between IGO and Encounter has been formed.
Yeneena comprises a major land position in the highly prospective Paterson Province, targeting copper-cobalt mineralisation.
The Yeneena Project is located 60km south- west of the major gold-copper mine at Telfer, owned by Greatland Gold (LSE:GGP) which it recently acquired from Newmont Mining Ltd (ASX:NEM) and south of the Nifty copper mine, owned by Cyprium Metals Limited (ASX:CYP) in commercial strategic partnership with Glencore.
The Paterson Province also contains multiple large-scale copper-gold deposits such as Greatland Gold’s Havieron (7.0Moz Au, 275kt Cu), Rio Tinto’s (ASX:RIO) Winu deposit (7.9Moz Au, 288kt Cu), and Antipa Minerals’ (ASX:AZY) Minyari Dome (2.3Moz Au, 84kt Cu) deposit. Rio Tinto recently acquired Antipa Minerals’ minority interest in the Citadel Project (2.8Moz Au, 173kt Cu)4 for $17m and sold a 30% stake in the Winu project for $399m to Sumitomo Metal Mining.
Encounter and IGO entered into an earn-in and joint venture agreement covering Yeneena in March 2020 following the discovery of the BM1 copper oxide prospect (10m @ 6.8% Cu from 32m, 20m @ 2.0% Cu from 22m and 16m @ 3.2% Cu from 26m).
Subsequently, IGO has completed diamond and aircore drilling, seismic and MT geophysical surveys and acquired belt scale geological, geochemical and geophysical data for integration into 3D modelling.
In accordance with the terms of the Yeneena Earn-In and Joint Venture Agreement, each party contributes pro-rata funding for exploration expenditure. Standard dilution clauses apply to the parties’ interests. Should a party’s interest dilute to below 10% it shall automatically convert to a net smelter royalty.