Corazon Mining (ASX:CZN) has signed a binding agreement to acquire the Chalice Gold Project from a wholly owned subsidiary of Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX) for $25.7 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, Corazon will pay a $250,000 deposit paid upon execution of the asset sale and purchase agreement and $8 million upon completion.
Around 47.6 million fully paid ordinary shares of Corazon (valued at around $6.7 million at the offer price) will be issued to Westgold, giving Westgold around 19.9% of shares on issue.
Additional cash milestone payments include $4 million payable 12 months from the completion of the acquisition.
Further milestone payments of $3.5 million each are triggered upon the announcement of an inferred resource of at least 300,000 ounces of gold at a grade of at least 0.5 grams per tonne, and upon the announcement of an inferred resource of at least 500,000 ounces of gold at a grade of at least 0.5g/t gold.
Chalice acquisition opens production pathway
The acquisition of the Chalice Gold project delivers a ‘high-grade’ asset on a granted mining lease in Western Australia’s Goldfields region of Western Australia, setting Corazon on the path to resource growth and production.
The project has a 191,000 ounce @ 2.7 g/t gold JORC-compliant resource, with a production history of 645,000 ounces. Corazon notes that Chalice also has a potential pathway to low-capex gold production, with processing facilities and key infrastructure 22km from the site.
The historical production amounts to 556,000 ounces from combined open-pit and underground operations, averaging around 5.5g/t gold from 1995 to 1999, and then around 89,000 ounces produced from underground operations at around 4.35g/t gold.
Corazon points out that Chalice’s average production grade of around 5.4g/t gold is much higher than the current resource grade of 2.74, “reflecting both the high-grade nature of mined shoots and the significant potential for higher-grade material within and beyond the existing resource envelope”.
Managing Director Simon Coyle says that the acquisition is “a genuinely transformational step” for the company.
“Chalice is a proven, high-grade gold system that has produced nearly 650,000 ounces, and with a resource that remains open in multiple directions, we believe the best discovery work is still ahead of us,” Coyle says.
“The combination of granted tenure, a 22km road to Westgold’s 1.6 million-tonne-per-annum processing plant, and Westgold’s own commitment as a 19.9% shareholder gives us a differentiated, capital-efficient path to production at a time when gold is in strong demand and quality in-ground ounces are being re-rated globally.”
Completion of the acquisition is subject to shareholder approval at the next general meeting and all other third-party consent and approvals.
Capital raise sharpens Corazon’s growth trajectory
Alongside this acquisition, Corazon has received firm commitments to raise $16.5 million (before costs) at $0.14 per share to help fund upfront capital and support an accelerated growth program.
The issue price is 30% below Corazon’s last trade price on 8 May 2026 and 21.4% below the five-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) up to 8 May 2026.
All new shares will rank equally with existing fully paid ordinary shares, increasing the total Corazon shares on issue to around 239 million.
Two Pools drilling confirms gold systems
Corazon has also announced progress in the 995m maiden diamond drilling program at the Two Pools Gold project in the Plutonic-Marymia Greenstone Belt in Western Australia, intersecting gold mineralisation in all four holes.
The results point to a coherent orogenic gold structural architecture and will inform a new set of high-priority targets for follow-up reverse circulation (RC) drilling.
Coyle notes that the drill program has confirmed ‘gold in ground’ and also provided a model for follow-up drilling.
“Confirming mineralisation in all four holes, including a high-grade hit of 4.6g/t gold in TPDD0002, tells us the system is real, and the geology is working in our favour,” Coyle says.
“The revised east-west vein orientation is a material step forward, and we now know where to look, and the follow-up RC program will be designed with considerably more conviction.
“The grant of E52/4521 is equally timely. This ground already sits within our project boundary, and with our native title agreement in place, we can move straight to fieldwork and begin planning the next phase of drilling.”
The company notes that a key outcome of the drilling is the revision of the interpreted vein orientation, which establishes that gold-bearing veins trend east-west.
Corazon has also noted discrete, foliated zones identified as key hosts for gold mineralisation, which reinforces the interpretation that increasing shear intensity is a primary control on gold distribution at Two Pools.
The company will next mobilise follow-up RC drilling to target down-dip and along-strike extensions of the confirmed east-west corridors, and will commence exploration planning on the newly granted tenement E52/4521.
Additional interpretation work on the full diamond core dataset will be completed ahead of the follow-up RC program. Corazon also plans to continue systematic target generation across Two Pools and assess additional drill-ready targets.
Corazon Mining is a mineral exploration and development company with a strategic focus on ‘high-grade’ gold exploration in Western Australia.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Corazon Mining
