Vancouver, British Columbia – June 21, 2021: ALTAIR RESOURCES INC. (“ALTAIR” or the Company”) (TSX V: AVX; Germany FRA: 90A; ISIN: CA02137W2004; WKN: WKN A2ALMP) today announced the signing of a binding agreement with three arm’s length private individuals (“Sellers”) (“Binding Agreement” or “Agreement”) for the acquisition of the Marbera 2 Permit (the “Properties”) consisting of three promising gold prospects in the extreme southwest region of Burkina Faso. The Properties host historical (non-NI 43-101 compliant) resources exceeding 1.3 million ounces of gold (“Historical Estimate”), in bulk tonnage and potentially open pit configuration and which are expected to have significant upside potential. The Properties are to be owned 90% by Altair and 10% by the Burkina Faso Government.
Although binding, the Agreement and the obligations of Altair thereunder are subject to completion of due diligence to Altair’s satisfaction and to the satisfaction of any and all lenders and financiers and to the obtaining of financing by Altair on reasonable terms in respect to the valuation of the transaction.
The reader is cautioned that historical gold resources cannot be relied upon as they need to be confirmed by a Qualified Person through additional sampling, analysis and possibly additional drilling. A National Instrument 43-101 Mineral Estimate Report on the property will be commissioned by the company to qualify the Historical Estimate and profile the property characteristics.
Acquisition Highlights
The 3 prospects, consisting of approximately 17,879 hectares, are located in one contiguous permit in the productive Precambrian greenstone terrane of Burkina Faso. Up to 2012, extensive diamond drilling, reverse circulation drilling, trenching, air core and auger work totaling 387,000 meters have been completed with a total of 294,000 samples taken. The three prospective open pit historical resource targets include:
- Prospect 1 with historical tonnage of 39.6 million tons of near-surface, potentially open-pit material grading 0.97 g/t gold for 1.24 million ounces of gold delineated by 342,000 meters of meterage,
- Prospect 2 with historical tonnage of 4.2 million tons of also potentially open-pit material grading 0.83 g/t gold for 112,000 ounces gold delineated by 27,000 meters of meterage, and
- Prospect 3 with historical tonnage of 1.2 million tons of also potentially open-pit material grading 0.91 g/t gold for 35,000 ounces gold delineated by 19,000 meters of meterage.
It is estimated that approximately 100,000 meters of diamond drill core from the previous exploration program has been logged, indexed and stored, and are available for examination by Altair’s geologists for further sampling and analyses.
The above-mentioned tonnages and grades cannot be relied upon, and must be confirmed by a Qualified Person, and subjected to confirmatory sampling, and if necessary additional drilling.
Drilling to date has been concentrated from surface to 100 meters and in some cases 150 meters to concentrate on potentially open-pit material. Gold mineralization occurs as multiple parallel zones or sheets with plunging higher grade shoots within the prospective horizons.
Several significant drilling intercepts of high grade are surrounded by lower grade envelopes of possibly stratigraphically controlled mineralization. For example, a zone of 8m at 6.6 g/t gold is accompanied by 44m of 1.1g/t gold, and a zone of 5m of 15.7 g/t gold is contained in 46m of material grading from 7.2 to 10.9 g/t gold. The reader is cautioned that these are selected intervals and are not necessarily representative of the deposit as a whole, and the potential economic recovery of such material has not been determined.
West Africa leads Africa as its most productive gold production region, producing an estimated 11.1 million oz. of gold in 2020. It is the second largest gold producing region in the world (S&P Global Mining). The Properties are within 50km of more than 10 million oz. gold resources.
Initial exploration and confirmation would concentrate on potentially open pit zones, but evaluation of the geological characteristics will also be oriented toward potential depth extensions of higher-grade zones, as targets of this nature are known to continue to great depths in deformed Precambrian greenstone terranes.
Historical Estimate
The Historical Estimate was disclosed in a report provided by the Sellers to the Company with an effective date of May 2018, The Historical Estimate does not comply with the CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves as required by NI 43-101 on the date the Technical Report was prepared. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the Historical Estimate as a current mineral resource in accordance with NI 43-101. The Company is not treating the Historical Estimate as a current mineral resource and the historical estimate should not be relied on.
Aggregate Consideration
At the closing of the Definitive Agreement, Altair will make a cash payment of US$2.3 million (“Initial Cash Consideration”) to the Sellers, and upon the completion of a compliant Technical Report on Form 43-101 with a minimum combined indicated and inferred resource of at least 1.3 million ounces of gold, Altair will issue 3 million shares and make a further cash payment of US$2 million to the Sellers.
Thereafter, Altair shall pay to the Sellers stock consideration of 3 million shares and cash consideration of a total of US$2 million on each of (1) the completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) with results to Altair’s satisfaction and (2) the completion of a Feasibility Study (“FS”) to Altair’s satisfaction showing a total minable reserve of at least 1.3 million ounces of gold.
On each of the events of reaching commercial production of (1) at least an annualized rate of 90% of the production contemplated by the FS from stable production of at least 6 months, and (2) at the end of the first year of commercial operations, Altair shall pay an additional cash consideration of US$7 million. At the end each of the second and third years of commercial operations, Altair shall pay an additional US$9 million of cash consideration, and at the end of each of the fourth and fifth years of commercial Operations, Altair shall pay additional cash consideration of US$10 million.
Mr. George S. Young, Altair Chairman & CEO, stated, “We are extremely excited to have entered into a Binding Agreement to acquire such a quality, advanced exploration asset in a very prolific gold producing region, having nearly 400 kilometers of drilling already completed on the prospects. Altair believes these prospects are ready to be quickly advanced to the PEA and feasibility stages with relatively minimal additional investment and time requirement. We are also pleased that most of the purchase consideration comes with significant milestones in the advancement of the properties and after the commencement of production. We plan to work hard and efficiently to bring significant accretive value to Altair Resources through the advancement toward completion of the NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate and the commissioning shortly thereafter of a PEA.”
An arm’s length finder’s fee will be paid in connection with the transaction.
About Altair Resources Inc.
Altair is a gold and precious metals exploration company with rights to acquire a 65-per-cent interest in the Simon gold and silver property located in the state of Nevada. A past producer the Simon property presents an excellent opportunity for adding value, employing low-cost exploration activities to identify prime drilling sites in six anomalous zones previously identified with gold, silver and copper mineralization. The Simon property lies within the region that hosts the prolific Tonopah district, the Round Mountain gold mine and numerous other successful mining projects.
Altair is also continuing with its consideration and negotiations on other properties. The company is evaluating the potential to acquire producing precious-metal and non-ferrous metal opportunities in North and South America and Africa, in addition to Kazakhstan and central Asia.
Information of a technical and scientific nature that forms the basis of the disclosure in this press release has been prepared and approved by Dr. Stewart A Jackson, a Qualified Person, under National Instrument 43-101, and independent consultant of Altair Resources Inc.
For further information:
George S. Young
Chairman, CEO, Altair Resources Inc.
+1 (806) 886- 3317
[email protected], www.altairresources.com
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to the Company. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results suggested by the forward-looking statements. In addition, the forward-looking statements require management to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. There is significant risk that the forward-looking statements will not prove to be accurate, that the management’s assumptions may not be correct and that actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements.
Generally forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as “anticipate”, “will”, “expect”, “may”, “continue”, “could”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “plan”, “potential” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may include, but are not limited to, the completion of the private placement and the Company receiving regulatory approval to the partial revocation order. These forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which may prove to be incorrect including, but not limited to, the Company receiving regulatory approval to the private placement and the partial revocation order application.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof or the dates specifically referenced in this press release, where applicable. Except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any forward-looking statements that are contained or incorporated in this press release. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
