Bayan Mining and Minerals Divests Bayan Springs North Project to Sun Silver

Bayan Mining and Minerals (ASX: BMM) has announced the divestment of its non-core Bayan Springs North project in the US to Sun Silver (ASX: SS1) that will raise up to $800,000.

Potential additional long-term value will be realised from Sun Silver’s right to re-purchase 0.5% of the attached net smelter royalty (NSR) for $2 million.

The transaction provides Bayan with immediate non-dilutive funding and meaningful exposure to future exploration success through a deferred consideration, performance milestone payment, and ongoing NSR over future precious metals production.

Bayan Springs North is prospective for sediment-hosted precious metals mineralisation and the Bayan board believes it is better suited to ownership by Sun Silver given its strategic focus on advancing the Maverick Springs district.

Bayan has confirmed it will retain full ownership and control of the Bayan Springs South project, which lies on the prolific Carlin Trend and has returned high‑grade surface assays of up to 8.25 grams per tonne gold.

Northwest Maverick Extension

For Sun Silver, the acquisition adds 116 claims (or 10 square kilometres) to its significant regional landholding and secures continuous control of the northwest extension of its nearby Maverick silver project.

Maverick has an inferred resource of approximately 237 million tonnes at 71 grams per tonne silver equivalent.

“The acquisition and additional claim staking provide Sun Silver with control of a highly prospective corridor that has emerged through our evolving geological understanding and remains largely untested,” Sun Silver managing director Andrew Dornan said.

“With our 2026 drill program ongoing and assay results expected shortly, we believe the company is well positioned to continue demonstrating the broader scale potential of the Maverick silver project.”

Complementary Project

Bayan chief executive officer Nathan Kong said Sun Silver was the obvious candidate to take over Bayan Springs North.

“This project is highly complementary to Sun Silver’s existing landholding, which makes it the logical owner to advance exploration in the district and allows us to maintain exposure to any future discovery success without committing additional capital,” he said.

“This transaction delivers non-dilutive funding that further strengthens our ability to accelerate development of our rare earth portfolio where our priority remains on building a leading critical minerals business at Desert Star.”

Proceeds from the divestment will be allocated towards Bayan’s other exploration assets, including the Desert Star rare earth project in California’s Mojave Desert and development of a suite of four new rare earth processing technologies licenced from the Colorado School of Mines that cover leaching, beneficiation, ancylite processing, and resin-based yttrium upgrading.

Bayan intends to commercialise these technologies across its own resource assets, third-party rare earth resources, and defence applications with the aim of building a secure vertically integrated rare earths supply chain to support US national security and defence manufacturing.