MELBOURNE: First Au Limited (ASX: FAU) announced today it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100 percent of the Barlee Gold Project, a 300-square-kilometer exploration property located approximately 260 kilometers north of the Southern Cross Goldfield in Western Australia.
The project is situated in the northern portion of the underexplored Marda-Evanston Greenstone Belt within the Yilgarn Craton, immediately north of the Evanston Gold Camp. The belt has historically produced more than 2 million ounces of gold.
The acquisition will be completed through the purchase of all issued capital of Regent Resources Pty Ltd, which holds the project tenements. Much of the surrounding tenure is controlled by Leeuwin Minerals Ltd (ASX: LM1) and was previously mined by Ramelius Resources.
Under the terms of the agreement, First Au will pay $1 million in cash — $500,000 upon completion and $500,000 after 12 months — and issue $1.25 million in fully paid ordinary shares, subject to shareholder approval under Listing Rule 7.1.
The project area has seen limited historical exploration due to extensive transported cover and salt lake sediments that obscure the underlying geology. However, a maiden drilling program conducted in 2021 identified anomalous gold, nickel and lithium-tin geochemistry.
Drilling encountered gold anomalism of up to 120 parts per billion in banded iron formation and mafic lithologies, nickel assays of up to 0.6 percent in ultramafic rocks, and lithium-tin anomalism in granitic rocks.
Chairman Daniel Raihani said technological advancements in geophysics and drilling now allow exploration beneath the cover that previously hindered effective exploration in the area.
“Investors need only look towards the Kambalda region as an analogue which has yielded more than 15 million ounces of gold, much of it from deposits located beneath Lake Lefroy,” Raihani said.
First Au plans to build on Regent’s 2021 exploration work and follow up the identified anomalism, with the goal of discovering value below the lake sediments. The company said the acquisition expands its exploration footprint in the Western Australian Goldfields and complements its work at the Gimlet Gold Project near Kalgoorlie, which has a mineral resource of 119,600 ounces at 3.15 grams per ton gold.
The acquisition agreement contains conditions precedent and additional provisions standard for agreements of this nature.
First Au is an advanced gold and base metals exploration company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:FAU) pursuing gold opportunities in Western Australia.