A junior mining company exploring for gold near Geraldton has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with three area First Nations.
Vancouver's Gold’n Futures Mineral Corp. and the communities of Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek, Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek and Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek announced the MOU signing this week regarding its Hercules Gold Project.
Hercules is 40 kilometres east of where construction is underway on Greenstone Gold's open-pit mine near Geraldton.
The MOU lays out a communication protocol and a path for the company and the communities to reach an exploration agreement, which is the next step in this engagement process.
In a statement, company president-CEO Stephen Wilkinson said the communication between his company and the communities "have resulted in founding a new, respectful relationship."
"Certainly, the evolving spirit of co-operation will be exceedingly beneficial to all of the parties."
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The junior miner said the province issued a work permit to conduct exploration on Nov. 18, good for the next three years.
This will allow the company is start its first-ever drill program by the end of this month. The focus will be on an area of the property that contains a historic gold resource.
The 8,740-hectare Hercules Project is thought to contain many high-grade gold zones even though it's been explored many times by other junior companies with thousands of samples taken and hundreds of drill holes punched. The project is accessible from Highway 11.
The company said Hercules has a historic resource of more than 111,000 ounces of indicated gold and more than 101,000 ounces in the inferred category, according to a 2010 estimate.
Pouring over that old data will be an artificial intelligence company hired by Gold’n Futures. GoldSpot Discoveries has been at the site this fall and has carried out an airborne geophysical survey. They'll present their findings to Gold’n Futures in December.
