GOLD PROSPECTS Stratex is buying into a gold project in Liberia
Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed gold and base metals exploration and development company Stratex International has signed a A$160 000 purchase agreement with private Australian company Aforo Resources to undertake exploration at its Sinoe gold project, in Liberia.
Stratex, which is focused on Turkey, East Africa and West Africa, said in a statement on Tuesday that it had the option to commit an additional A$160 000 on exploration after July 4, should initial results be positive.
Stratex also had the option to relinquish its rights to the agreement with no further financial penalty after July 4. After November, upon the total expenditure of A$320 000, the company then had the option to acquire either Aforo Resources Liberia or the Sinoe project by payment of a further A$100 000 to Aforo Resources by December 1.
Upon confirmation of a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of at least 500 000 oz of gold, or gold equivalent, Stratex would pay Aforo Resources a further A$4/oz, capped at one-million ounces, in either cash or Stratex shares.
Stratex CEO Bob Foster said the company had monitored work on the licence for the past nine months and decided that the results of the exploration programme, especially a soil-sampling programme, justified Stratex taking this step.
“We already have a footprint in Liberia as a result of our joint venture with [UK-based exploration company] BG Minerals, which allowed us to evaluate the wider exploration potential of the country. We rate it very positively, a view shared by a number of investors and funds that we have met in London in recent months," Foster added.
In December 2013, Stratex paid Aforo an advance of A$150 000 in return for an exclusive period of due diligence that included the assessment of all soil sampling results to date.