Walkabout edges further into gold space with Koza UK joint venture in Northern Ireland

Walkabout Resources (ASX: WKT) has moved further into the gold space after executing another joint venture with Koza UK to earn a 75% interest in the Slieve Gallion gold licence in Northern Ireland.

Previous rock chip sampling at Slieve Gallion returned up to 58.5 grams per tonne gold and 2.7% copper.

The licence is in a region known for gold prospectivity and situated about 20km from the Dalradian Resources’ 4.4 million ounce Curraghinalt gold resource.

“The addition of these earn-in joint ventures with Koza UK into Walkabout’s Northern Ireland portfolio, which includes management control, enables us to strengthen our position within the highly prospective Dalradian gold belt and further leverage the company’s strategy to diversify into potential growth opportunities,” Walkabout executive chairman Trevor Benson said.

Under the joint venture terms, Walkabout will initially earn 50% of the holding company by expending at least US$500,000 on exploration.

The remaining 25% can be earned after a pre-feasibility study is published, with Koza UK free-carried to this stage.

Once the pre-feasibility has been completed, costs will be shared 75% to Walkabout and Koza UK to make up 25% or dilute its interest to 10% or less.

This latest joint venture brings Walkabout’s landholding in Northern Ireland to about 1,250 square kilometres.

In addition to gold, the company is exploring the area for base metals.

The company’s flagship asset remains its Lindi jumbo graphite project in Tanzania. A definitive feasibility study has been completed on the project which projects a US$29.6 million capital start up cost to produce 40,000 tonnes per annum of graphite concentrate.

Lindi’s reserve estimate is 5 million tonnes grading 16.1% total graphitic carbon for 809,081t of contained graphite. The project’s total resources are 29.6mt grading 11% total graphitic carbon for 3.25mt of contained graphite.

Walkabout is awaiting an official decision from the Tanzanian government regarding proposed mining royalty and other sector changes, prior to moving the project forward.

Shares in Walkabout had slipped a little more than 1% by midday to sit at A$0.092.