Caerus Mineral Resources plc announced it had completed its acquisition of PR Ploutonic Resources Ltd and its three advanced copper-gold exploration licences in Cyprus.
The company is paying £750,000 for the licences to be paid in 3,311,258 restricted-trading, new ordinary shares of 0.1p each (consideration shares) each at 22.65p.
PRL is registered in the country and its licences Troulli, Kokkinapetra and St Nicholas licences have clear evidence of historic production.
Caerus said that all three properties had excellent potential for discovery of further high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) copper-gold and epithermal gold deposits.
TROULLI
The Troulli project comprises a former small scale high-grade, open pit gold mine last operated in the 1930s as well as a separate open-pit operation that mined a high-grade copper-gold VMS deposit. It stopped production prematurely in 1974.
The licence area also hosts a number of dumps and stockpiles with reported grades as high as 1.5% copper.
Since April, Caerus has been conducting further exploration and due diligence at Troulli.
KOKKINAPETRA
The Kokkinapetra project is the geological extension of Troulli. Gravity concentration of a number of 60kg bulk samples collected by PRL returned notable quantities of fine gold. There are also indications of VMS-type copper-gold mineralisation located beneath the overlying epithermal gold occurrence.
ST NICHOLAS
The St Nicholas project comprises two sulphide copper-gold ore bodies partially drilled by Noranda in 1977, returning a peak intercept of 5m @ 4.82% Cu and 6g/t Au from 11m depth.
During 2011, Katla (Northern Lion) reported intercepts including 28.6m @ 1.06% Cu and 4.5g/t Au from 10m depth.
STAND-ALONE PROJECT
Caerus chief executive Martyn Churchouse said that the acquisition was an important addition to the company’s portfolio.
“We are especially excited about the very promising initial exploration observations at Troulli that indicate the presence of both an epithermal Au deposit and scope for a further Cu-Au VMS deposit.
“The objective is to quickly establish the physical limits of both mineralisation types before undertaking work to determine a mineral resource that, combined with the mineralised dumps, ore stockpiles and tailings on the licence, will convert into a stand-alone project that fits the entry criteria for Jubilee Metals Group.”