Athena Silver Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Advanced Stage Nevada Gold Exploration Excelsior Springs Project
Press Release | 12/15/2020
VACAVILLE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 15, 2020 / Athena Silver Corporation (OTCQB:AHNR) ("Athena" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its press release dated August 31, 2020, it has entered into a definitive property option agreement (the "Option Agreement") with Nubian Resources Ltd. ("Nubian") (TSXV:NBR), pursuant to which Nubian has granted Athena the option (the "Option") to acquire a 100% interest in Nubian's Excelsior Springs exploration project located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA ("Excelsior Springs" or the "Property"). Nubian will retain a 1% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR Royalty") on the Property, and Athena will have the right to purchase 0.5% (being one half) of the NSR Royalty for CAD $500,000 and the remaining 0.5% of the NSR Royalty at fair market value.
Athena plans to make Excelsior Springs its flagship project and commenced an initial work program on the Property in September 2020. In connection with the Exchange Listing (as defined below), the Company intends to have a technical report prepared on the Property before the end of December 2020. The technical report will be prepared under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and will recommend a future exploration program to advance the Property. Excelsior Springs is located in the prolific Walker-Lane tectonic zone, an area that has seen a recent resurgence with several important gold discoveries and gold mines going into production.
Excelsior Springs is a large, intrusion-related, gold-bearing hydrothermal system which has generated a 2.5 km-long zone of intense alteration containing all of the project's historic RC drill holes. Of the 84 holes drilled, 61% contain a minimum 20-foot-long intercept of greater than 0.25 gm Au/T, which is the typical cut off grade for most of Nevada's open-pit gold mines. "This widespread mineralization clearly demonstrates the potential to establish an N.I. 43-101 compliant resource with further drilling." Power said. "These historic drill results provide a great foundation to build upon and to quickly advance the project, which we believe has the potential to host one or more open-pittable gold deposits. The majority of known mineralization is in the oxide zone, but several holes have anomalous gold values associated with disseminated pyrite and skarn zones. This type of mineralization, along with a pronounced IP chargeability anomaly, suggests the potential for a large zone of sulfide-hosted gold mineralization at depth," added Power.
Commercial Terms
The Option is structured as a two-stage option, whereby Athena has an initial option to earn a 10% interest in the Property (the "First Option" ), followed by a second option to earn an additional 90% interest (the "Second Option" ), subject to the NSR Royalty. The First Option can be exercised through a cash payment by Athena of USD $10,000 to Nubian and the issuance of 5,000,000 Athena common shares to Nubian (each, a "Consideration Share"). The Second Option can be exercised by Athena through the issuance of an additional 45,000,000 Consideration Shares to Nubian, and the completion of certain other conditions precedent, including Athena having completed the listing of its common shares (the "Exchange Listing") on the Canadian Securities Exchange or such other stock exchange agreed to by the parties (the "Exchange"). Nubian has agreed to a contractual hold period of six months for the Consideration Shares commencing on the Exchange Listing and ending on the earlier of (i) six (6) months from the date of the Exchange Listing, and (ii) December 31, 2021. If Athena does not complete the exercise of the Second Option by December 31, 2021, the 10% interest earned by Athena under the First Option will revert to Nubian, and Athena would no longer hold any interest in the Property.
About Excelsior Springs Gold Project, Esmeralda County, Nevada
The Excelsior Springs mining claims cover an area of 3.5 km2, including the historic Buster mine, which had estimated historical production of 18,000 tonnes (T) at 37.3 grams gold per tonne (g Au/T) gold to a maximum depth of 70 m. The Property is located in the Walker-Lane tectonic zone of southern Nevada, which hosts a number of large historic gold mines. Total gold production from the Walker-Lane tectonic zone has exceeded 20 million ounces (Moz), including notable deposits by Goldfields (5 Moz), Bullfrog (2 Moz), Tonopah (2 Moz), Mineral Ridge (1.5 Moz), and Comstock (8 Moz Au, 200 Moz Ag). Nubian owns 100% of the 140 unpatented claims at Excelsior Springs, with two additional patented claims held under a lease option that is subject to a 2% net smelter returns royalty on gold production.
The reports of past production on Excelsior Springs are historical in nature and may not accurately indicate the extent or grade of mineralization present on the Property. Although the Company believes the source of the historical information to be generally reliable, such information is subject to interpretation and cannot be verified with complete certainty due to limits on the availability and reliability of raw data and other inherent limitations and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that the Company has no interest in or right to acquire any interest in any of the above-mentioned properties, other than Excelsior Springs and that the mineral deposits and the results of any mining thereof, on adjacent or similar properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on Excelsior Springs or any potential exploitation thereof.
From the mid-1980s through 2011, a number of exploration companies conducted drilling programs, primarily on the patented claims, that began to define the near-surface Buster Mine gold zone. Gold mineralization at the Propert
