Helix Resources (ASX:HLX) has entered into conditional binding letter agreements to acquire the White Hills Copper-Gold Project in Arizona, US from Centric Minerals Management (USA) and White Hills Exploration.
Comprising seven tenements over 23km2, the project sits 50km from the Mineral Park porphyry copper-molybdenum-silver mine operated by privately held Waterton Copper.
Under the binding letter agreements, Helix will pay $100,000 as well as $100,000 after a formal agreement has been signed to the privately held vendors’ Centric Minerals Management and White Hills Exploration.
The company will also conduct a capital raising of at least $1 million, as well as issue $1.3 million worth of shares. The capital raising is anticipated to be conducted in Q2 2025.
As part of the acquisition, five private mining sublease claims within White Hills are under a farm-in agreement by Centric with Newmont (ASX:NEM).
Newmont’s agreement obligations, royalty, and buy back rights include spending US$500,000 on the mining sublease claims by 5 January 2026, as well as delivering a positive Feasibility Study and paying US$500,000 to Newmont.
If a Prefeasibility Study progresses, Newmont has the right to back in and will pay 1.5 times the exploration expenditure to that point. As a result, both companies will form a 51:49% joint venture to develop White Hills.
Executive Chairman Mike Povey says adding White Hills provides an opportunity in a part of the world “renowned for producing work-class copper-gold deposits”.
“Our intention is to move as quickly as possible in our evaluation of White Hills and the vendors, two highly experienced geologists with an intimate knowledge of working in the western US, will be of great help in our exploration efforts,” Povey says.
Once formal agreements have been reached, Helix plans to prepare a drilling program to test coincident geophysical and geochemical targets. The company anticipates 2,000m of diamond core will be drilled.
Helix Resources is a copper-focused explorer with a 3,000km2 ground position in the Cobar region of New South Wales.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Helix Resources
