Completing 91.5% of Gnaweeda option expenditures
February 17, 2012
Archean Star Resources Inc. (TSX.V: ASP) (the "Company" or "Archean") announces that it has advised Teck Australia Pty Ltd. ("Teck") and Chalice Gold Mines Limited, ("Chalice") that Archean has completed over 80% of the budgeted 2011-2012 Joint Venture expenditure of AUD$1,750,000 on the Gnaweeda Gold Project ("Gnaweeda"). Under the terms of the underlying Joint Venture Agreement between Teck and Chalice, and the current Option Agreement between Archean and Teck, Archean is the Operator of the Joint Venture.
Chalice elected not to fund its pro-rata share of the Gnaweeda 2011 - 2012 Joint Venture expenditure, and, pursuant to the Teck-Chalice Agreement, Chalice has been diluted to an approximately 13.5% ownership of Gnaweeda, with the Teck ownership percentage increasing to 86.5%.
To date Archean has spent approximately AUD$2,750,000 or 91.5% of the required AUD$3,000,000 expenditure required to earn Teck's interest in the Gnaweeda Property, subject to Teck having a 75% back in right. Archean now has only AUD$250,000 of additional expenditures to incur to complete its 100% earn-in of Teck's interest.
The approximately 170 sq km Gnaweeda Greenstone Gold Belt, which is substantially under explored, has the potential to host similar size gold deposits to the nearby Meekatharra gold fields that have historically produced approximately 3.5 million ounces of gold, and has current reported resources of approximately 3.3 million ounces of gold. Gnaweeda is located in the northeast area of the highly prolific Murchison Greenstone Gold Belt where, historically, over 18 million ounces of gold have reportedly been produced. Westgold Resources recently announced a 29% increase in their resources at the Cue project in the Murchison gold belt; from 1.9 million ounces to 2.7 million ounces.
It's all happened before and it will all happen again. Might as well profit from it.
