Alberta-based Smartset Services listed in mid-2018, and has spent the past few years looking for an asset.
It has now decided to become the latest Canadian player to move into the Australian mining and exploration space with GBM, and has a separate deal to acquire four gold and copper projects in north-eastern New South Wales from private Canadian company, Great Southern Gold.
Smartset, which is run by Randy Clifford and Novo Resources director Leo Karabelas, says it aims to conduct systematic exploration of five district scale historic gold and copper projects.
In terms of the Mt Morgan deal, GBM will be issued shares in Smartset for about 35% of the company, after dilution from a planned C$8 million placement at 50c per shares.
GBM says it can dispose of a non-core asset to focus on its new flagship in the Drummond Basin, while remaining aligned with Smartset, via its shareholding and board representation.
Mt Morgan covers some 934sq.km surrounding the third-party owned mine that gives the project its name, and encompasses around 350sq.km of Devonian-age stratigraphy prospective for concealed deposits.
The historical Mt Morgan mine is the single largest deposit in the New England Orogen and remains one of the largest gold deposits in Australia, operating over 90 years and producing 7.64Moz of gold grading 4.75 grams per tonne and 361,000t of copper grading 0.72%.
There are a number of large but untested outcrops, including 1-2 km long soil and rock chip anomalies at Sandy Creek, Oakey Creek and Black Range, and the Mt Usher prospect, from which over 130,000 ounces of gold has been recovered historically.
British Columbia-based Great Southern will also be offered shares for around 25% of the company, prior to dilution, in return for the Bingara, Nundle, Bonalbo and Klondyke projects, which cover 1475sq.km of licences and claims.
The NSW prospects centre on historical goldfields, with Bonalbo and Klondyke prospective for intrusion-related gold systems, while Bingara and Nundle encompass multi-km-long trends associated with the Peel Fault.
The potential for IRGS has not been tested at Nundle, while Bingara hosts a string of volcanogenic massive sulphide copper-gold-lead-zinc deposits, and both are potential for orogenic gold, with potential for Fosterville-style bonanza mineralisation.
The GBM and Great Southern transactions require shareholder approval, Smartset to complete a placement and share consolidation, and completion of due diligence. It is expected the deal will be completed by mid-November.
Great Southern also needs to dispose its other Australian assets.
GBM is in the final stages of finalising its Twin Hills transaction with Minjar Gold, and last week it triggered an option for other tenements in the Drummond Basin from Yacimiento for cash and shares.
The company wants to develop a 1Moz resource within the Mt Coolon region. It now has 852,000oz, with twin Hills to add 633,000oz.
The company has also triggered its option to purchase the 50% stake in the White Dam gold-copper project in South Australia that it does not own from ASX-listed Washington H Soul Pattinson and Co's Round Oak Minerals for A$500,000 cash and $1.9 million to replace environmental bonds
White Dam has produced 1211oz gold and 80t copper since production started in mid-2020.
GBM started the quarter with $6 million cash, and has around $4.3 million worth of Novo shares, issued for the Malmsbury joint venture in Victoria.
GBM shares, which have traded between 6-22c over the past year, were down 4% to 12c, valuing it at $54 million.
Smartset shares were last traded at C26c, with the stock having traded between 4.5-35c over the past year. It was capitalised at just $4 million.
