NickelX shareholders approve Penny South acquisition, rebrand to Strata Minerals

NickelX (ASX: NKL) shareholders have approved the acquisition of the Penny South gold project in Western Australia from Aurum Resources (ASX: AUE).

Under the terms of the deal, completion of which is expected over the next few days, NickelX will pay Aurum a cash consideration of $60,000 and issue 3 million shares at $0.02 each (equating to another $60,000) to acquire 100% of the project.

A deferred consideration of $500,000 will be paid to Aurum on the delineation of a minimum 50,000-ounce gold resource grading at least 1 gram per tonne, and a further $500,000 will be paid for every additional 50,000oz resource with a grade of at least 1g/t defined within the first five years of ownership.

Renowned gold district

The Penny South project sits in a world-class gold district some 550 metres south of Ramelius Resources’ (ASX: RMS) Penny West/North gold mine that is estimated to contain 440,000t of ore at 22g/t for 320,000oz gold.

The project captures a 2.5km strike extension of the Penny West Shear immediately south of Ramelius’ deposits in the southern Youanmi greenstone belt.

Historical drilling across the Penny South acreage reached an average depth of 42m (with 18 holes deeper than 100m and seven deeper than 200m) and no diamond drilling.

Capital raising

NickelX has completed the second tranche of a $2 million capital raising to fund exploration at its Elliot Lake uranium project in Canada.

The company raised $1.7m through the placement of 85.5 million fully-paid ordinary shares priced at $0.02 each to new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors and company directors.

It will add to $289,000 raised under the first tranche in July through the issue of 14.4 million shares at the same price.

New claims

In May, NickelX added 51 sq km to its ground-holding at Elliot Lake by securing the rights to 11 new multi-cell claims known as the Blind River Block.

The project now comprises 41 multi-cell mining claims over 180 sq km where the company is targeting conglomerate-hosted uranium and rare earth element mineralisation along underexplored interpreted extensions.

NickelX said the known deposits typically have “excellent lateral and down-dip grade and thickness continuity”, providing the potential for large-scale discoveries.

Name change

NickelX shareholders have also approved a proposal to change the company’s name to Strata Minerals.

The new name was selected to align with a change of direction for the company as it aims to extract value from its current uranium, rare earth and gold prospects while assessing other value-adding opportunities.

The new ticker on the Australian Securities Exchange will be SMX, with the transition expected shortly.