VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 6, 2017) - Radius Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE:RDU) is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Bald Peak gold property from Ely Gold & Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE:ELY) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Nevada Select Royalty Inc. ("Nevada Select"), adding to Radius's portfolio of epithermal gold prospects in the Aurora gold camp, Nevada.
The Bald Peak Property consists of 38 unpatented mining claims in Mineral County, Nevada and one mineral prospecting licence in Mono County, California. The Property overlies a 6 km long, NE-trending zone of gold-bearing quartz-chalcedony veins, stockworks and hot spring silica sinters that has seen minimal historical exploration work.
Bald Peak Mountain is a rhyolite dome complex located 7 km WNW of the historic Aurora Gold mine that was recently acquired by Klondex Mines Inc. The high level gold bearing veins/stockworks and sinters discovered on the Property occur in a rhyolitic sedimentary unit intermittently exposed beneath more recent volcanic flows along a NE-trending depression, potentially a graben structure. Previous explorers in the area collected rock chip samples along this trend. Historical exploration documentation shows that within the Property boundaries, 201 rock chip samples from exposed outcrops returned assay values ranging from trace to 7 g/t Au, with 40 samples returning assay values above 1 g/t Au. Rock chip samples also contain highly anomalous levels of Hg, Sb, and As, elements typical of shallowly-exposed epithermal systems. The historical geochemical data suggest that these outcrops may represent the upper portions of a productive hydrothermal system.
Radius intends to leverage its prior experience in these high level environments to advance the Bald Peak Property, exploring for bonanza epithermal gold-silver veins similar to those seen within the Bodie-Aurora-Borealis district.
The historical results given here are from previous explorers' exploration summary documents, and have not been independently verified by a Qualified Person. The exploration work summarized appears to have been done to an appropriate technical standard, however, and Radius's Qualified Person believes them to be reliable. Radius will be selectively resampling surface outcrop as part of its due diligence exploration work.
Acquisition Terms
Radius has acquired a 100% interest in the Bald Peak Property in consideration of the payment to Nevada Select of US$35,115, the granting to Nevada Select and/or a former property owner, of a total 3% NSR royalty, and making annual advance royalty payments to Nevada Select of US$25,000. Radius has the right to reduce either royalty by 1% by paying US$1.0 million to Nevada Select, and/or US$500,000 to the former owner.
Tlacolula Sale
Radius has reached an agreement, subject to regulatory approval if required, with Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. ("Fortuna") for the sale of Radius's Tlacolula property.
In 2009 Radius signed an option agreement with Fortuna whereby Fortuna could earn a 60% interest in the property by making certain cash and share payments to Radius, as well as work expenditures. Fortuna advanced the property with sampling and trenching but has been unsuccessful to date in obtaining social licence to conduct a drill testing program. As the deadline for meeting the required expenditures has lapsed, Radius and Fortuna have agreed to amend the option so that Fortuna will acquire a 100% interest in the property by issuing to Radius 250,000 shares of Fortuna and granting Radius a 2% NSR royalty. Fortuna will retain the right to purchase 1% of the royalty by paying Radius US$1.5 million.
Qualified Person
David Clark, M.Sc., P.Geo., is Radius's Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101, "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" and has approved the technical information in this news release.
About Radius
Radius has been exploring for gold in Latin America for over a decade. The Company has a strong treasury and is looking for investment and project acquisition opportunities across the globe. Please call toll free 1-888-627-9378 or visit our web site (www.radiusgold.com) for more information.
