AEX Gold Inc. (AIM:AEXG) (TSXV:AE) has acquired mineral exploration licences No. 2020-41 and 2021-11 covering areas in South Greenland from Orano group for zero upfront consideration and a royalty on future production.
AEX management views these licences as holding significant opportunity for the discovery of strategic minerals.
Highlights
- Significant 3,527.75 sq. km strategic mineral licence area acquired from Orano, taking AEX’s total land package in South Greenland to 7,615.85 sq.km.
- The acquisition means the company will become the largest licence holder in South Greenland, and the third largest in Greenland, after Anglo American and Greenfield Exploration.
- The licenses are acquired in exchange for a 0.5% contractual, gross revenue royalty (GRR), based on any future mineral sales from the license area. The royalty is capped at US$10 million. Orano has a right of first refusal on any sales or transfer of licenses.
- The licence area includes assets which increase the company’s exposure to metals such as nickel, copper, zinc, lead, titanium, vanadium, graphite and rare earth minerals, as well as additional gold resources across the Nanortalik and Tartoq gold belts.
- Minerals present are categorised as strategic, due to increasing demand for their use in the global energy transition. This acquisition now potentially gives AEX shareholders exposure to 29 elements across South Greenland.
- South Greenland is considered as one of the most prospective regions for strategic metals and rare earth elements; the region is currently known to host 1.5% of global rare earth element reserves, however, the European Commission estimate that with further exploration this number could increase to as high as 9.2%.
- AEX’s ongoing Mineral System Modelling highlights the potential of Southern Greenland to host significant strategic metal deposits. These new licences sit within a interpreted Laurasian Mineral Belt connecting Eastern Canada through Greenland to Scandinavia that hosts World Class mineral deposits such as Voisey’s Bay (Canada), Gardar Province (Greenland), and the Kiruna IOCG belt (Scandinavia).
- Existing AEX infrastructure, such as the 50 Personnel Exploration Camp at Nalunaq will be leveraged to explore and potentially develop the acquired licenses.
“We are excited to be substantially increasing our exposure to strategic metals and rare earth elements across Greenland. Greenland has the potential to become a crucial supplier of these vital minerals to the Western world, and AEX intends to be a key player in this,” CEO, Eldur Olafsson, said.
AEX is now the third largest licence holder in Greenland and the largest in Southern Greenland. We have an excellent relationship with the Government which continues to provide strong support to the mining industry both fiscally and through favourablelegislation. We welcome the opportunity to expand exploration for strategic minerals following this deal. As with our current portfolio, AEX will conduct this exploration through the use of modern, cutting-edge exploration methods and techniques, utilising our existing camp and infrastructure, and we look forward to providing updates to the market on this work in due course.”
The licence area acquired has significant strategic mineral potential, including nickel, copper, rare earth elements, zinc, lead, titanium and graphite. AEX will pay Orano a 0.5% gross revenue royalty on potential future sales of minerals exploited on the licences, paid annually and capped at US$10 million (“Royalties Cap”). The Royalties Cap is subject to an annual inflation adjustment, with an ultimate cap set such that it cannot exceed the current market capitalisation of the Company.
The acquisition is subject to approval from the Greenland Government, the process of which is already underway.
Targets of specific note across this newly acquired land package include:
- The Stendalen Iron-Vanadium-Titanium layered intrusive – previously explored by GEUS, Softrock Mineral and NunaMineral A/S. This intrusive is 8km in diameter and hosts a magnetic layer up to 20m thick which has provided historical samples yielding between 1-10.5% Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) (average of 4.8%) and 226-5,753ppm Vanadium (V) (average 2,335ppm). Stendalen also host the potential for Nickel (Ni), Copper (Cu) and Platinum Group Element (PGE) mineralisation with grab samples proving grades of 0.8% Copper (Cu), 0.5% Nickel (Ni) and 0.1% Cobalt (Co).
- North Sava – a continuation of the ground held and explored by AEX Gold during 2021 within a newly identified IOCG (Iron Ore, Copper Gold) and Porphyry Copper belt situated in close proximity to the international airport at Narsarsaq. North Sava has provided historical grab samples up to 382 g/t Gold (Au), 3.4% Copper (Cu), 3.7% Zinc (Zn), 100 g/t Silver (Ag), 19% Niobium (Nb), 1.7% Uranium (U), 2.2% Zirconium (Zr).
- Midternaes an unconformity and ultramafic hosted nickel, uranium, lead and zinc target within a sublicence adjoining AEX Gold’s Tartoq NP licence and within the Tartoq gold belt in Southwest Greenland.
- The Paatusoq Rare Earth Element, Niobium, Tantalum, Zirconium project is a syenite complex that is 20 km in diameter covering an area of >240 sq. km within an unexplored section of the Garder Province that also hosts the Kvanefjeld and Tanbreez rare earth projects.
- Numerous gold targets within the Nanortalik gold belt and several identified graphite targets similar to that already being explored by AEX at Nørrearm and GreenRoc at the Amitsoq Project.
For further information please visit: https://www.aexgold.com/
