Dr Leon Pretorius' TopTung is banking on the Lac Kelly, Midrim and LaForce projects it will acquire from Meteoric and TSX-listed Globex Mining Enterprises adding to the potential of its existing holdings in the Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt of Quebec.
It entered Canada via the acquisition of Zeus Minerals in October and started drilling almost immediately at Alotta with two verification holes plus four extensional and three infill holes building on a program completed by a former owner in the area, Aurora Platinum.
TopTung is looking to become the first company in more than a decade to consolidate ownership of the prospective areas in the Belleterre Angliers Greenstone Belt. Aurora was taken over by FNX Mining in 2005, and the discovery by FNX of the largest deposit in the Sudbury region in 40 years derailed all further work and the Belleterre-Angliers leases were eventually sold off to different vendors, impeding the ability of regional exploration.
TopTung is looking to stitch that portfolio back together, and today's announcement should double its holdings.
It has a deal to acquire Canadian Nickel Corporation for 15.7 million shares, and CNC has an option to acquire Lac Kelly, which is surrounded by Top Tung's existing Lorraine project and hosts a non-JORC 1.4 million tonnes at 0.7% copper, 0.7% nickel and 1.2 grams per tonne PGEs.
Meteoric will sell the Midrim and LaForce projects to TopTung for 31.5 million shares, which valued at A$1.5 million based on TopTung's previous trading price. It will increase Meteoric's investments to around $4 million, which it can use to help fund its own exploration programs on its cobalt projects in Ontario.
The transaction is a little complex given the deals with CNC, Meteoric and TopTung all need to close at the same time, and there are key conditions precedent, including royalty holder and shareholder agreements.
TopTung is still to complete due diligence over CNC.
TopTung aims to develop low-cost open pit mines using tolling agreements with existing mills. It seems Midrim as a key plank in its plans given there is a mix of high grade and broad copper, nickel and platinum group elements, and some highly promising preliminary metallurgical test work.
CNC is completing a scoping study on the development, with the results due by the end of the year.
Midrim is just 1.5km from Alotta.
There are non-JORC resource at LaForce too.
TopTung, which had around A$3 million in the bank at the start of September, aims to pick up where Falconbridge left off following its 2007 takeover by Glencore, complete digitation of the historic data, and target 3-5Mt deposits. It defined dozens of targets, but was never able to advance its program.
TopTung shares fell 12.2% on the news, hitting 4.3c, while Meteoric shares crashed 22% to hit 1.4c.
