Source : THE AGE NEWS
By Craig Nolan
EV Resources has pulled a quick profit from offloading its recently purchased Coyote Creek antimony project in the US state of Utah, which the company acquired for less than $150,000 in cash and company shares.
The sale to ASX-listed Trigg Minerals will see EV pull in cash and shares worth $450,000.
The old mill site at EV Resources Coyote Creek antimony project, which it has sold to ASX-listed Trigg Minerals.
The sale price of $225,000 in cash and $225,000 in Trigg shares provides EV with continued exposure to the project through its newly acquired shareholding in Trigg.
EV has agreed to sell its 100 per cent owned subsidiary company Monomatapa Investments, which holds 49 unpatented claims over the 980-acre Coyote Creek project.
The $225,000 parcel of Trigg shares will be issued at the completion of the sale, based on the 15-day volume-weighted average price of the shares immediately prior to the date of the transaction announcement.
A further $450,000 in cash or Trigg shares, at Trigg’s election, are to be issued to EV on a JORC compliant resource estimate being delivered within four years from transaction completion, expected to occur 20 days after executing the agreement.
The deemed share issue price will be the greater of the 15-day VWAP of Trigg shares or 3 cents.
EV Resources instigated its purchase of Coyote Creek in April by issuing $125,000 of its shares and refunding fees paid to the Bureau of Land Management and the local Garfield county by the investor, totalling about US$16,000 (A$25,000).
The company says it remains committed to its Americas-focussed antimony strategy, incorporating open pit mining opportunities, with its Trigg shareholding and its proposed acquisition of 70 per cent of the Los Lirios open pit antimony mine in Oaxaca state in southern Mexico.
The United States currently imports all of its antimony concentrates. Recent US government initiatives to fast-track critical minerals projects, considered to represent strategic importance to the US, may help pave the way for the project to move into production sooner than anticipated if sufficient resources are unearthed.
The project comes with a historical non-JORC resource of 12.7 million tonnes at 0.79 per cent antimony.
The sale of Coyote Creek is in step with the company’s recent focus on reducing its expenditure by selling non-core assets. It recently announced the sale of its La Cienega copper project in the US state of Arizona to fellow ASX-listed explorer Magnum Mining and Exploration.
EV says the deal will include a 2 per cent net smelter return (NSR) royalty on any future copper production at the project, allowing the company to retain exposure to any upside in the US copper project.
In the wake of China’s critical minerals export bans over the past two years, critical minerals such as antimony have seen huge price increases as future supply concerns push demand.
EV will likely use the profits from the sale of Coyote Creek and freed-up funds from the La Cienega sale to quickly progress the recently acquired Los Lirios project in Oaxaca, Mexico, which is shaping up as a source of potential near-term cashflows.
The company acquired 70 per cent of the past-producing Los Lirios antimony mine, which encompasses 1652 hectares of antimony-rich historic open pits and underground workings.
Previous production from Los Lirios concentrated on antimony ore at direct shipping ore grades. Two grab samples from the Los Lirios 3 open pit returned antimony assays of 62 per cent and 62.99 per cent, respectively.
The South American focused explorer holds a 70 per cent interest in the Parag project in Peru, a bulk-scale porphyry with its copper-molybdenum-silver deposit beginning from surface.
Copper porphyries account for nearly 70 per cent of the world’s copper as they can offer a huge scale of mineralisation.
EV also holds 50 per cent of the drill-permitted Don Enrique copper-silver project in Peru, which has several compelling targets and access to water, power, roads and labour from nearby towns.
The company is slimming down its portfolio of total projects, while focusing on fattening up its core projects, such as Parag and Los Lirios, that remain in its grasp.
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