Headwater Gold has signed a definitive agreement with a subsidiary of OceanaGold to explore three projects in Nevada, US.
The agreement allows OceanaGold to acquire up to 75% interest in Headwater's TJ, Jake Creek and Hot Creek projects through staged exploration expenditures of up to $65m and the completion of pre-feasibility studies (PFS).
The TJ project is situated on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in the north-eastern part of Nevada, around 25km south-east of Jackpot town.
The Jake Creek project, fully owned by Headwater, comprises 189 unpatented lode mining claims on BLM land in Humboldt County.
It is positioned 65km north-west of Winnemucca and 8km east of Nevada Gold Mines' Turquoise Ridge mine complex.
The Hot Creek project, also entirely owned by Headwater and royalty-free, comprises 52 unpatented mining claims in the Tuscarora District of Nevada.
OceanaGold has committed to a minimum exploration expenditure of $2.5m across the three projects within the first two years.
The company can earn up to a 65% interest by investing $25m each in both TJ and Jake Creek and $15m in the Hot Creek project.
Upon completing PFS for each project, OceanaGold has the opportunity to acquire an additional 10% stake in each project, bringing its total ownership to 75%.
Additionally, it will grant Headwater a 1% net smelter return royalty once the PFS is finalised.
As part of this collaboration, Headwater will take on the initial operation of the projects and earn a management fee of 10%.
Drill mobilisation for the TJ project has commenced following the execution of the agreement.
Headwater president and CEO Caleb Stroup said: “We are very excited to have executed the definitive agreement with OceanaGold, a strong technical and financial collaborator. The stage is now set for a series of exploration programmes on all three of these projects in 2025.
“Mobilisation for the TJ drilling programme has commenced and we are eagerly anticipating the kick-off of this high-priority drill test. TJ is interpreted to represent a robust, fully preserved epithermal system with multiple high-quality targets identified during our work last year, and the partner-funded drilling this year is designed to unlock the project’s full potential.”
