Legacy divests Mulholland nickel-tin project to Karawara Minerals

Legacy Minerals (ASX: LGM) has divested its Mulholland nickel-tin project to unlisted explorer Karawara Minerals for a total consideration of $305,000.

The sale will allow Legacy to tighten focus on its other wholly-owned assets including the Cobar (gold-copper), Harden (gold), Fontenoy (gold-copper), Rockley (gold-copper) and flagship Bauloora (gold-silver epithermal) and Black Range (gold-silver epithermal) projects.

The project suite covers 2259 square kilometres of granted and pending licences and Legacy plans to continue its exploration efforts using funds received from the Mulholland sale.

Free ground

Legacy pegged Mulholland in December 2021 as free ground representing a zero-dollar acquisition cost to the company.

It comprises nickel and tin occurrences along trends of up to 2.6 kilometres defined in drilling as well as significant intercepts including 44 metres at 0.45% nickel.

Legacy has not conducted any on-ground exploration at the tenement.

Karawara Minerals is an unlisted public company which plans to use cashflow from the restart of its Broula magnetite mine in central New South Wales to fund critical minerals exploration for green technologies.

Divestment terms

Under the terms of the Mulholland divestment, Legacy will pay Karawara a total $105,000 in cash, split into a $30,000 payment on completion of the transaction and $75,000 on admission to the ASX.

Legacy will also pay $200,000 for Karawara fully-paid ordinary shares at $0.10 each within seven days of the transaction’s close.

The total consideration takes into account an independent consultant’s evaluation of Mulholland’s value, the alignment of the project within Legacy’s portfolio and Karawara’s minimum expenditure commitments required to keep the tenement in good standing.

If Karawara’s ASX listing does not occur within two years of the transaction, Legacy will have the option to buy-back Mulholland at market value.

Aggressive exploration program

Earlier this month, Legacy commenced an aggressive exploration program at Bauloora as part of a $15 million joint venture farm-in agreement with Newmont Exploration which kicked off in April.

Bauloora is one of the largest low sulphidation epithermal systems in the Lachlan Fold Belt and is expected to benefit from Newmont’s expertise in the discovery and development of epithermal gold deposits including the 4.5 million ounce Pajingo mine in Queensland and the 7.1Moz Cerro Negro mine in Argentina.

Tier 1 discovery

Legacy managing director Christopher Byrne said the company was focused on the discovery of a Tier 1 gold deposit at Bauloora.

“With Newmont on board, we are in the fortunate position to be able fund and undertake large systematic surveys at a scale and pace of exploration that is often beyond the reach of a junior explorer,” he said.

“We will have detailed magnetic and radiometric surveys completed across the entire tenement as well as AMT resistivity models which provide visibility down to over 1000m depth across 10sqkm of the Bauloora vein field… it will vector our drilling towards resistive ‘feeder structures’ which may host high-grade gold-silver mineralisation.”