Southern Arc completes acquisition agreement with Newmont
Thursday, January 12 2006 - 02:39 AM WIB
SA said in a statement that the acquisition was completed through a relinquishment by NNT of Block 1 and a subsequent expansion by SA of its current Lombok SIPP license to include the Block 1 area.
The terms of the agreement include granting NNT a 2 percent net smelter royalty (NSR) on any mineral production from the area covered by Block 1 together with a right of first refusal should SA wish to introduce a new partner into any development within the area originally covered by Block 1.
Block 1 was held by NNT under a fourth generation Contract of Work during the period 1985-2005. Block 1 is located approximately 1.5 hours drive from the provincial capital of Mataram and can be accessed through a good network of logging and local government roads.
According to the statement, exploration by NNT within Block 1 confirmed porphyry copper style mineralization with enhanced gold grades in the Selodong area, high sulfidation epithermal gold mineralization in the Mencanggah area as well as other epithermal vein targets in the Pelangan area.
In addition to the targets identified in Block 1, a number of multi element stream anomalies at Gili Genting, Lendang Bile, Lendang Luar and Batu Kidung have been identified within the Western Block from regional drainage sampling carried out by SA in 2004. Rock float includes both low sulfidation vein material and argillic to phyllic altered volcanics and intrusives that have assayed up to 1.34 ppm Au and 0.24 percent Cu. All of these anomalies warrant further exploration.
SA is in the process of compiling all relevant data to prioritize targets for work programs on the Western Block. This is expected to result in the definition of a number of drill targets that are planned to be drilled before year-end 2006. (Robert)