North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

New Age Metals Inc. April 18 announced that it has signed an agreement with Anglo Alaska Gold Corp. to acquire full ownership of the Genesis, a 10,240-acre, drill-ready platinum group metal project about 75 highway miles north of the all-weather port city of Valdez.

"NAM (New Age Metals) uses the prospector generator model and after the preliminary field work and additional ground proofing, our objective is to find an option/joint venture partner to further the development of this promising new drill ready project, with excellent base metal credits," said New Age Metals Chairman and CEO Harry Barr.

Situated alongside the Richardson Highway, Genesis is an under-explored palladium-platinum-nickel-copper property that is ready for follow-up drilling, additional surface mapping, sampling to expand the known footprint of mineralization and to determine the ultimate size and grade of the layered mineralization outlined to date.

New Age Metals said PGM mineralization has been identified over a 9,000-meter area on the property.

Sampling of one drill-ready reef style target at Genesis returned up to 2.4 grams per ton palladium, 2.4 g/t platinum, 0.96 percent nickel and 0.58 percent copper.

The property also hosts a separate style of chromite mineralization containing up to 2.5 g/t palladium and 2.8 g/t platinum.

No drilling has been done on this project that is less than two miles from a paved highway and electric transmission line.

New Age Metals said this ease of access and superb infrastructure make this project prospective for year-around exploration, development and production.

In order to earn 100 percent interest in Genesis, NAM has agreed to pay C$30,000 in cash and issue 200,000 NAM shares to Anglo Alaska on the closing of the deal. New Age will make the same cash and share payments on each of the first three anniversaries of the closing.

Under the terms of the agreement, and in the event the project goes into production, New Age has agreed to pay Anglo Alaska a 3 percent net smelter return royalty on the project. New Age has the right to buy back up to 1.5 percent of the NSR for C$500,000 for each one-half percentage point.

The company has also agreed to pay the minimum Alaska state mining claim rentals and annual labor requirement on the property during the earn-in period.

New Age Metals identified Genesis through a deal it cut with Fairbanks, Alaska-based Avalon Development Corp.

The agreement provides New Age Metals with access to Avalon's extensive database of geological, geochemical and geophysical information on PGM and rare metals projects across Alaska.

Avalon will provide field manager services to investigate any projects New Age Metals acquires under the agreement and will receive finder's fees or property option compensation for its services.

"NAM's management will continue to actively acquire other PGM and other rare metal projects in the state of Alaska," said Barr.

–SHANE LASLEY