Nickelore signs agreement to acquire Flores gold, copper project

Australian-listed firm Nickelore Limited (NIO) announced Wednesday that is has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the holders of a prospective manganese, gold and copper project on the island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara.

Nickelore has the right to acquire up to a 90% interest in the Project via payment of share and cash consideration and meeting phased exploration expenditure requirements, the company said in statement.

The acquisition forms part of NIOs? ongoing strategy to acquire mineral projects within Asia and specifically Indonesia, where recent positive changes to the mining law and general prospectivity greatly enhance the potential for economic success, it said.

The project area, a single tenement (IUP) of some 23,000 hectares is located on the Island of Flores in Indonesia, 630 kilometres east of Bali. The island of Flores forms part of the Banda Arc, a Tertiary volcanic belt that is still active.

The project area has been subject to initial field work including geological mapping and rockchip sampling and this work has produced highly anomalous base metal, gold, silver and manganese samples.

The western portion of the project area is covered by a limestone unit which hosts two medium sized manganese operations just west of the NIO tenement. Manganese samples of up to 52% have been collected from regional mapping within the tenement and the potential exists to locate a similar sized deposit to those being mined on the adjacent ground. The proximity of the project area to the coast allows for easy shipment of product should a deposit be identified.

On the eastern side of the project, reconnaissance field work has identified a base metal and associated gold/silver anomaly. The area of mineralisation is associated with a zone of intense argillic alteration, brecciated volcanics and tuffs and potentially a diatreme. Also, the presence of a one kilometre long zone of outcropping, carbonate hosted polymetallic mineralisation with up to 42% zinc, 4.2% lead, 100ppm silver and up to 0.9 grams per tonne gold indicates the potential presence of a porphyry copper/gold intrusive within the mineral precinct. This area will form the focus of initial exploration by NIO.

A review of recently collected field data and a site visit by NIO management, including Indonesian based Exploration Manager Prayogo Hargyono, confirms that the area has the potential to contain a large base metal and gold deposit.

The MOA is subject to Nickelore being satisfied with the results of its ongoing legal due diligence program. (kanti)