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

Ascot Resources Ltd. Aug. 13 reported that it has entered into definitive agreements with Jayden Resources Inc. and Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd. to acquire a full ownership of Silver Coin, an advanced stage, gold-silver property about 800 meters from Ascot's Big Missouri project and five kilometers (about three miles) from the Premier mill.

Mineralization at Silver Coin is characterized as epithermal gold-silver deposit with base metal sulfide-bearing breccias and veins similar to those mined at the Premier Mine.

The high-grade core of Silver Coin hosts 702,000 metric tons of indicated resource grading 4.46 grams per metric ton (100,660 ounces) gold and 967,000 metric tons of inferred resource grading 4.39 g/t (136,480 oz) gold.

"Material from the Silver Coin property was successfully mined and processed in the early 1990s at the Premier mill, said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White. "The project's proximity to Ascot's infrastructure and the identical metallurgical characteristics create key synergies with Ascot's existing resources."

Ascot is working towards resuming underground production with the facilities and infrastructure already in place at Premier – including mill, assay lab building, crusher, tailing storage area, underground development and roads linking Silver Coin and Premier.

"We are excited about the exploration potential at the Silver Coin property and the potential to rapidly add to our resource base on our path forward," said White.

To gain ownership of Silver Coin, Ascot has agreed to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Jayden's subsidiary, Jayden Resources (Canada) Inc., in exchange for 14,987,497 Ascot common shares. In addition, Ascot will issue up to 1,715,684 additional Ascot Shares for the settlement of options and warrants exercised before the closing date with the net cash proceeds of the warrants accruing to Ascot.

Jayden Canada owns an 80 percent joint venture interest in Silver Coin, Mountain Boy Minerals owns the balance.

Concurrent with its agreement with Jayden, Ascot has entered into an arrangement with Mountain Boy to acquire that company's Silver Coin JV interest in exchange for 3,746,874 Ascot shares. In addition, Ascot will issue up to 428,921 additional shares to Mountain Boy for the settlement of Jayden options and warrants which may be exercised before closing.

Jayden shareholder are expected to vote on the proposed acquisition at a meeting slated for early October. Certain shareholders of Jayden and all officers and directors of the company, which own or have control of over approximately 31.4 percent of the current issued and outstanding shares of Jayden, have agreed to vote in support of the Silver Coin purchase.

Closing of the sale is expected shortly after the Jayden shareholder meeting.

"We are very pleased that we were able to reach a mutually beneficial agreement with Jayden and Mountain Boy and look forward to creating value for all stakeholders by consolidating the high-grade resources in the southern part of the prolific Golden Triangle," White said.

–SHANE LASLEY