Merolia sale to boost White Cliff growth strategy

ASX-listed White Cliff Minerals has topped up the piggy bank with the sale of its Merolia Gold Project near Laverton for $274,000 to UK-based Panther Metals. The sale was flagged in November as part of a strategic review of White Cliff’s gold and base metals exploration portfolio, as it focuses on developing the highly prospective Reedy South and Midas projects, both located in Western Australia.

The Merolia sale includes $112,500 cash and the issue of 734,470 Panther ordinary shares (valued at $161,500) to White Cliff. White Cliff is not turning its back on Merolia completely however, with Panther to pay $1.25 per ounce of future JORC or equivalent gold resource declared within the project area.

White Cliff Non-Executive Chairman, Michael Soucik, said that while the Merolia project had historical, high-grade gold results and a lot of potential to delineate a future maiden resource, the White Cliff board considers it non-core to the company’s future direction.

“The transaction with Panther Metals provides White Cliff with ongoing exposure to the project in the form of future cash payment on all gold resource ounces being declared,” Mr Soucik said.

Half the ordinary Panther shares issued to White Cliff will be subject to six months voluntary escrow from the date of issue. The other 50 per cent will be subject to 12 months voluntary escrow from the date of issue.

The Merolia project covers 145 square kilometres incorporating the Ironstone, Comet Well and Burtville East gold prospects along a 14km long corridor collectively known as the Comet Well Mineralised Trend. The trend was identified via a mixture of recent soil geochemistry, small scale unregistered mining and prospecting. During the life of the project White Cliff undertook a comprehensive soil sampling program to generate more than 3,300 samples.

UK-based Panther Metals has an existing footprint in Australia. Its portfolio comprises the Marrakai and the Annaburroo gold prospects southeast of Darwin in an existing gold zone.

White Cliff continues to diversify its minerals portfolio with a focus on gold, copper and nickel in Western Australia. It has a number of active exploration targets, however the projects gaining the most attention are Reedy South near Cue and Midas near Newman.

The Reedy South project covers 272 square kilometres of the highly prospective Cue goldfields, centred on the southern portion of the prolific Reedy Shear Zone, within the Meekatharra-Wydgee greenstone belt. In October, White Cliff declared a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate of 779,000 tonnes at 1.7 grams per tonne of gold for 42,400 ounces of gold.

Reedy Shear Zone hosts numerous high-grade gold mines, with vertical plunging mineralisation extending to depths of more than 500m. These include Triton-South Emu, Bluebird and Paddy’s Flat operated by Westgold Resources. These three underground mines are expected to deliver more than 100,000 ounces per annum to the 1.6 to 1.8 million tonnes per annum Bluebird processing plant over the long term.   

With similar characteristics to Triton-South Emu, White Cliff believe there is scope to substantially grow the resource at Reedy South through drilling at depth and along strike.

Historical drilling from 1984 to 2015 at Reedy South returned numerous high-grade intercepts from the Pegasus and King Cole prospects, including 12 metres at 5.26g/t from 34m, 7m at 10.86g/t from 30m, 4m at 7.68g/t from 36m and, 5m at 6.41g/t from 34m.

In November, White Cliff commenced a 3,000-metre drilling program to test strike and depth extensions at Pegasus and King Cole. Assay results are expected in late-December. Results from the program will feed into an updated mineral resource estimate at Reedy South.

The Midas Copper-Gold Project consists of two wholly-owned licences, Table Top and Coolbro Creek, both situated in the western Paterson Province in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The province is home to the large-scale Telfer gold, copper and silver mine and the Nifty copper mine which have both been operating for several decades.

Historically, gold has been recorded in stream sediment samples around Coolbro Creek and in rock-chip samples at Table Top. At Table Top, historical mapping indicates quartz filled fracture systems over 3km in length.

In November, White Cliff said it had completed a maiden geochemical sampling program at Midas, with 502 samples taken across priority targets. Samples have been despatched to ALS Laboratories in Perth for multi-element assaying with results expected in the coming weeks.

Commanding a portfolio of exciting prospects and a healthy bank balance, White Cliff looks well-placed to shore up its enviable position as an explorer of significance in Western Australia.

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