Alara Resources (ASX: AUQ) has secured rights to earn-in up to a 70% stake in the Awtad Copper-Gold Project in Oman, with the project containing known copper mineralisation identified from previous exploration.
Consideration to earn-in is by funding exploration and evaluation and completion of a Definitive Bank Feasibility Study over a 5 year term.
Importantly, the project is located in the Semail Ophiolite belt in Northern Oman that extends over 800 kilometres, with the potential for Cyprus-type VMS copper gold deposits, and is only 120 kilometres by paved highway from an operating copper concentrator and smelter in Sohar.
In the past, the Government-owned Oman Mining Company has produced, mined and treated 14 million tonnes of copper resource at between 1% to 2% copper from open cut mines at their Lasail, Arja and Baida mines in this belt.
Highlighting the prospectivity of the project, a detailed study of geological, geophysical and GIS data at has identified five target areas, the first being a 15 square kilometre area.
The project is located 130 kilometres west of the capital of Oman, Muscat, and holds a mineral excavation license for copper ores over almost 50,000 hectares.
Alara said the concession owner is currently seeking an expansion of the mineral rights from copper to include gold ores.
Analysis and geophysical interpretation of the study, pending completion this month, will form the basis of further ground exploration that includes drilling of identified anomalies and geochemical sampling.