Nevada Sunrise Metals (TSX-V:NEV) has entered into an earn-in option agreement with privately held American Metals Exploration, to acquire up to a 79% interest in the Fivemile Gold Project in the Cortez Mining District of Nevada, US.
Fivemile comprises 266 unpatented mineral claims totalling 5,496 acres, situated 5 miles southwest of the Fourmile gold deposit owned by Barrick Mining (NYSE:B).
Under stage one of the earn-in deal, Nevada Sunrise will incur US$1 million ($1.39 million) in expenditures by 31 May 2028, of which a minimum of US$300,000 must be completed by 31 May 2027.
The first option expenditure includes a cash payment of US$55,500 and an additional cash payment of US$30,000 on or before 15 August 2026. The company will also pay a further US$60,000 on or before 15 August 2027.
Upon meeting the first option expenditure requirement, a joint venture will be negotiated and formed between both companies. American Metals will be the operator for all work conducted on the joint venture until Nevada Sunrise has satisfied its obligations under the deal.
To acquire a 65% interest under the second stage of the earn-in, Nevada Sunrise must incur US$850,000 in expenditure by 31 May 2029. The company will also pay US$80,000 in cash to American Metals on or before 15 August 2029.
Meanwhile, the third stage involves Nevada Sunrise incurring US$850,000 in expenditures no later than 31 May 2030. The company will also pay US$120,000 in cash to American Metals.
If Nevada Sunrise does not complete the third option expenditure or provides notice that it does not intend to proceed, the third option will terminate. As a result, Nevada Sunrise will hold a 65% interest in the joint venture project.
Nevada Sunrise on the hunt
CEO Warren Stanyer says Fivemile is an “excellent” greenfields opportunity for the company in one of the world’s richest gold districts.
“The lessons learned from the 2015 discovery of the high-grade Fourmile deposit as it steadily developed to its current status as the premiere Nevada gold deposit, has galvanised a new exploration model for deeper and higher grade Carlin-type gold deposits,” Stanyer says.
“The hunt by several major and junior companies for another Fourmile-type deposit is on.
“Nevada Sunrise is eager to begin exploration at Fivemile, which contains favourable interpreted geological, geophysical, and structural features similar to those observed at the Fourmile deposit — the greatest gold discovery made in Nevada in generations.”
The company notes that the presence of the Fivemile gravity high suggests a shallow dense rock body, possibly a rhyolite dome or a bedrock high, which could be lower plate carbonate rocks — the main host for Carlin-type gold deposits in the Cortez district.
At Fivemile, the primary exploration target sits along the western border of the Cortez apical graben that formed in Eocene time in the core of a south-plunging anticline and hosts the Cortez Hills and Cortez deposits, respectively located four to 5.5 miles to the north.
Nevada Sunrise’s initial exploration plans for Fivemile include a high-resolution gravity and magnetic survey to better define the conjunction of the gravity high and the magnetic low anomalies identified from a regional USGS geophysical survey.
Ionic leach soil surveys will also be conducted to detect areas that may be anomalous for gold and other pathfinder elements.
Nevada Sunrise Metals is a junior explorer focused on gold, copper, and lithium.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Nevada Sunrise Metals
