The acquisition includes a $20 million non-recourse loan with 12% per annum interest payable after three years, 48.2 million Aeon shares at 14.5c each and unlisted three-year options worth $10 million.

Aeon said the deal was made through a set of “complex arrangements” due to the involvement of secured creditors and receivers and managers.

Through picking up the company Aeon gained access to the Walford Creek project in Queensland and interests in four exploration joint ventures in the Mt Isa region.

Walford Creek was previously Tinkler’s flagship base metals project.

Along with the acquisition Aeon raised $8 million via the placement of 66.7 million shares at 12c each to advance drilling and development studies at Walford Creek.

Aeon managing director Hamish Collins, who previously worked for Tinkler’s Aston Resources before falling out with the magnate, said the deal marked the start of a busy new period for the company.

“The addition of the Walford Creek project and the Mt Isa tenement package to our portfolio forms a highly complementary asset base and will significantly increase our scale and long-term growth potential,” he said.

“This is a major deal for a junior like us and will transform Aeon into a premier base metals focused company.

“The resources sector is all about market timing and quality of asset base – this transaction has both of these attributes.”

Walford Creek includes an indicated and inferred resource containing 187,000 tonnes of copper, 402,000t lead, 426,000t zinc, 31.7 million ounces silver and 35,000t cobalt.

The resource depth ranges from 20m to about 200m with only 5km of a potential 25km corridor drilled.

Aeon said the capital raising was oversubscribed and along with Walford Creek the money would be directed to drill programs at its existing Ben Hur and 7B projects in southeast Queensland.

The raising means Aeon will be fully funded for the activities to the end of December 2015, at which point it is targeting completion of a prefeasibility study for Walford Creek.

So far 14,992m of drilling has been undertaken at Walford Creek.

Aeon said it was planning an additional 12,000m to increase the resource by at least 50% to more than 75Mt.

Adding to Collins’ familiarity with the assets, Aston CEO/exploration manager Dan Johnson will also join Aeon.

Aeon shares were last trading steady at 15c.