AuKing Mining Ltd (ASX:AKN) has completed the second earn-in milestone under their Koongie Park joint venture agreement with Anglo Australian Resources NL (ASX:AAR), more than two years ahead of schedule.
As per the agreement, the company had acquired the final 25% interest in the Koongie Park project by completing a second earn-in milestone funding expenditure of $1.5 million, taking the total stake to 75% in the joint venture.
This milestone succeeds the first earn-in milestone, which was achieved in December last year when the company acquired a further 25% in the partnership – taking the total stake to 50% at the time.
“Important milestone”
AuKing CEO Paul Williams said: “The acquisition by AKN of the 75% Koongie Park project interest is an important milestone for us.
“Based on the results from the drilling program in 2021, AKN is building a strong platform for future development activities at Koongie Park.”
Koongie Park earn-in timeline
In February last year, AuK-ng entered into an earn-in and joint venture agreement with Anglo Australian Resources NL (ASX:AAR), giving the company the right to earn up to a 75% interest in the Koongie Park project by completing an exploration expenditure of $3 million over a three-year period.
On December 9, 2021, the company had completed the first earn-in milestone of $1.5 million, taking its interest in the joint venture to 50%.
Upon AuKing acquiring this interest, the two mining licences where the Sandiego and Onedin deposits are situated are now part of the joint venture property.
At the time, the company notified Anglo Australian of its intention to proceed to earn the final 25% interest in the Koongie Park project, by incurring a further $1.5 million within the next 12 months.
On January 17, the company passed the second earn-in milestone, upgrading the Koogie Park interest to 75%.
Koongie Park project
Koongie Park project is in the highly mineralised Halls Creek Mobile Belt, which also hosts the Savannah (Sally Malay) and Copernicus nickel projects, the Argyle diamond mine and the Nicholsons gold mining operation owned by Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR)
It is already a significant undeveloped base metals project with publicly reported JORC 2004 resources containing copper, zinc, gold and silver. The primary deposits within the project are Sandiego and Onedin.
AuKing's first exploration drilling program at Koongie Park made strong progress completing the program late in the December quarter.
Seven diamond holes were completed in mid-December as part of the Onedin metallurgical test-work program, with assay results to come.
Assay results derived from exploration drilling to date have been very encouraging and support the AKN board’s view that there is excellent prospectivity at Koongie Park.