More property to be aquired - near Prosperity Feb 01, 2012
Auriga Gold to Acquire the Prosperity North Property, British Columbia, from Pioneer Metals
TORONTO, ONTARIO - February 1, 2012 Auriga Gold Corp. (TSX-V: "AIA") ("Auriga Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement to purchase a 100% undivided interest in a 12,622 ha (126 km2) property consisting of 29 mining claims named the Prosperity North Property in the Clinton Mining Division of British Columbia from Pioneer Metals Unlimited Liability Company ("Pioneer"), a subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation ("Barrick"). The Prosperity North Property is contiguous with Taseko Mines Limited's (Taseko's) Prosperity copper-gold deposit in the Williams Lake area of British Columbia.
Taseko's Prosperity deposit is a gold-copper porphyry with a 1.0 billion tonne Measured and Indicated Resource containing 5.3 billion pounds of copper and 13.3 million ounces of gold and is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in Canada. The Prosperity North Property covers a similar geological trend to the Prosperity deposit and contains a largely untested Induced Polarization (IP) anomaly that may be consistent with a porphyry-style copper deposit.
The purchase price for a 100% undivided interest in the Prosperity North Property is the issuance of 5-year warrants to purchase 1.5 million Auriga Gold common shares at a strike price of $1.00 per share. The warrants and the underlying common shares will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day after issuance. Barrick will also retain a 2.5% net smelter return royalty. The acquisition is subject to the approval of the TSXV.
Richard Sutcliffe, Auriga Gold's President and CEO commented, "We are very pleased to have the opportunity to purchase the Prosperity North Property from Pioneer Metals, with Barrick being our largest shareholder. Prosperity North is a significant property both in size and geological profile and offers a large regional gold-copper porphyry style target. While we intend to focus on the development of the Maverick Gold Project in Manitoba, our team has the necessary experience to develop a drill program to selectively test the existing anomalies and we anticipate drilling Prosperity North this summer."