Auriga Gold Corp. has announced it has signed an agreement to purchase the 46% minority interest in the Nokomis Property currently held by Claude Resources Inc.
Prior to the acquisition, Auriga held an undivided 54% interest in the Nokomis Property, which is contiguous to the Puffy Lake Property and part of the Maverick Gold Project. The Nokomis property comprises 39 staked claims with an area of 2,200 hectares, and is located less than 8 kms northeast of the Puffy Lake Mill.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Auriga Gold has agreed to issue to Claude 3,428,571 common shares of Auriga Gold at an issue price of $0.35 per share. The issued shares will be subject to a hold period of four months, from the closing date of the definitive agreement. After the acquisition, Auriga Gold will have a total of 44,034,052 shares outstanding. The acquisition is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all requisite regulatory approvals including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The transaction is expected to close on or about November 15, 2011.
Richard Sutcliffe, Auriga Gold's CEO commented, "The acquisition of the remaining interest in the Nokomis claims brings our Maverick Gold Project to full 100% ownership and provides an excellent exploration opportunity to expand our resources on the project. We expect to commence a drilling program on the Nokomis property this winter to test various mineralized zones for resource expansion."
The Nokomis Property is reported to contain approximately 70,000 ounces of gold in a historical resource of 349,110 tonnes at a grade of 6.10 g/t gold (Technical Report for Pioneer Metals Corporation dated September 8, 2006 and filed on SEDAR). This resource is a historical resource based on diamond drilling and completed in 1985. The historical resource predates NI 43-101 and is not compliant with current definitions. Neither the Company nor a Qualified Person have carried out sufficient work to verify the historical estimate or to classify the historical estimates under the current mineral resource terminology and consequently the historical estimate should not be relied on by investors.