M3 Metals Corp. [MT-TSXV; XOVP-FSE] said Tuesday October 8 that it has secured an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Mohave Gold Mine Project, which covers numerous historic gold mines in the Weaver mining district of Mohave County, Arizona.
M3 Metals advanced on the news, rising 25% or $0.025 to 12.5 cents on volume of 2.1 million. The shares have been trading in a 52-week range of $0.09 and 60 cents.
The Vancouver-based junior is currently advancing its Mohave Mine Gold Project along with its Block 103 Iron Ore Project in Newfoundland and Labrador. The company is also active on copper and gold projects in Manitoba.
“We are extremely pleased with the acquisition of this advanced-stage project that still has significant upside,” said M3 Metals President Adrian Smith.
M3 Metals said it has secured the option on the Mohave Project, which covers 160 claims, from two separate vendors. In addition to the historic gold mines, there is an approximate 5-km gold-in-soil and gold-in-rock geochemical anomaly that extends across the entire length of the project.
Large areas of the anomalous gold geochemistry, including several historic gold mines, have not had any modern exploration drilling. The company has secured the mineral rights to all the historic mines on the project in the belief that they may be related to a property-wide gold system.
“Historically, the private owners were focused on development and did not test the numerous remaining targets on the project for its larger potential,” Smith said. “We are eager to begin an aggressive drilling program campaign on the extensive target area on the southern portion of the property while expanding on those to the north.”
Meanwhile, to earn the 100% interest, M3 Metals has agreed to make cash payments up to US$3.57 million over the next four years. It has also agreed to spend US$1.5 million on exploration. Under the agreement, the vendors are entitled to a 1.5% net smelter royalty following payment of the final US$3 million in cash.
M3 Metals said there have been more than 550 historic drill holes (68,000 feet) completed on the property. Drilling was focused on the development of historic non-compliant resources within limited areas of the project. All historic drilling was done in the northern one-fourth of the property, and most of the holes were shallow, 100-feet deep, air-track holes, many of which stopped in mineralization.
Most of the work was done by private companies in the 1980s and 1990s. Previous work included blasting of an initial bench at the Klondyke Mine, work that represented the beginning of an open pit style operation.
Currently the company is engaged in an aggressive data compilation and data recovery exercise. It said it will update the market when appropriate.