North American Palladium Ltd. ("NAP" or the "Company") (TSX:PDL) has announced a 51 per cent investment in the Sunday Lake Project.
The decision to elect to continue investing in this platinum group metal (PGM) property was supported by encouraging drilling results from the PGM Zone, including the best intersection reported to date (41.2 m grading 3.22 g/t Pt, 2.08 g/t Pd and 0.21 g/t Au in drill hole SL-19-026), said a company news release.
After completing two winter drilling programs, the Company has exceeded the mandated two-year exploration expenditure requirement and has completed the requisite cash payments to its partners, comprising $675,000 to Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (“Implats”) and $75,000 to Transition Metals Corp. (“Transition”).
Accordingly, Implats’ interest in the joint venture has been reduced to 24per cent while Transition maintains a 25 per cent free carried interest through to the completion of a feasibility study.
Commenting on the transaction, Company CEO and President Jim Gallagher said:
“We are very pleased to partner with Implats and Transition on the Sunday Lake Project, which is NAP’s best blue-sky opportunity and a key element of our long-term strategy to build an inventory of high-quality platinum group metal assets in the Thunder Bay region. We have demonstrated that the PGM Zone has significant lateral continuity and are now able to focus on areas of enhanced thickness and grade.”
About the Sunday Lake Project
The Sunday Lake PGM Project is located 25 kilometres north of Thunder Bay in Jacques Township, approximately 60 kilometres south of NAP’s Lac des Iles Mine operations (“LDI”). The property hosts the Sunday Lake Intrusion, which is part of the Proterozoic Mid-Continental Rift magmatic event that produced the Eagle nickel deposit in Michigan (Lundin Mining) and the Tamarack (Rio Tinto – Talon Resources) and Duluth Complex (Antofagasta PLC) magmatic sulphide deposits in Minnesota.
About the Agreement
Prior to NAP vesting a 51 per cent interest, the Project was a joint venture between Transition and Implats, whereby Implats held a 75 per cent interest and Transition held a 25 per cent free carried interest until the completion of a Feasibility Study, at which time Transition’s interest would convert to a 25 per cent participatory interest.
On June 20, 2017, Transition and Implats collectively signed an Option Agreement with NAP. The Agreement provides NAP with the exclusive right to acquire Implats’ 75 per cent ownership in the Sunday Lake Project by completing the following exploration expenditures and cash payments:
- Stage 1: NAP was entitled to acquire a 51 per cent interest in the property by investing $1.5M in exploration expenditures and making cash payments of $75,000 to Transition and $675,000 to Implats within a two-year period. This stage has now been completed.
- Stage 2: NAP may increase its interest from 51 per cent to 65 per cent by investing an additional $2.5M in exploration expenditures and making further cash payments of $125,000 to Transition and $1.125M to Implats within a two-year period.
- Stage 3: NAP may further increase its interest from 65 per cent to 75 per cent by investing an additional $0.5M in exploration expenditures and making final cash payments of $150,000 to Transition and $1.35M to Implats within a one-year period.
