Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) has announced it is expanding its US critical minerals portfolio through agreements covering the Jacknife High-Grade Silver Project and Sawtooth Antimony Project in Idaho and the Raven Silver Project in Montana.
The company has signed a binding agreement with Scout Discoveries to acquire an 80% interest in Jacknife, while completing due diligence and electing to proceed with the separate Raven and Sawtooth acquisition from Lia Energy Holdings.
Jacknife covers 3,940 acres and contains six historical mines along approximately 7km of mineralised shear zones in Idaho’s Lakeview mining district, 45km north of the Silver Valley.
Jacknife’s Conjecture mine hosts a foreign estimate of 632,081 tonnes @ 405 grams per tonne silver (Ag) for 8.22 million ounces (Moz).
The estimate was prepared in the mid-1970s and is not reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012. Olympio says a competent person has not completed sufficient work to classify the estimate as a mineral resource or ore reserve under the code, and it remains uncertain whether further work will allow it to be reported as such.
Historical records show the six mines at Jacknife produced a combined 3.25Moz of Ag from 255,621 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 395g/t Ag. This includes around 2Moz from Conjecture at an average grade of 684g/t Ag between 1956–1964.
“The Jacknife Project has historically produced over 3.2 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 12.7 ounces per tonne over a period of very low silver prices,” Managing Director Sean Delaney says.
Historical drilling results include 1.4m @ 692g/t Ag and 0.42g/t gold (Au) from 101.4m, 3.9m @ 264g/t Ag and 1.88g/t Au from 38.4m, and 0.6m @ 1,106g/t Ag and 0.81g/t Au from 100.4m.
The announcement notes that Olympio will pay Scout US$20,000 ($28,639) for a 30-day due diligence period, followed by US$100,000 and 45 million shares upon satisfactory completion. Additional shares and cash payments are tied to drilling, permitting, resource, and study milestones.
Olympio and Scout will form a joint venture, with Scout retaining a 20% free-carried interest through to commercial production. Olympio will also obtain Scout’s first right of refusal over the historical Lakeview Mill, less than 2km from Conjecture.
The company plans to drill between known levels of the Conjecture mine to test the continuity of mineralisation. Surface mapping and sampling will also be conducted to generate further targets.
Meanwhile, under the separate Lia transaction, Olympio will issue 12.5 million shares to acquire Idaho Stibnite, which holds the Sawtooth claims. The Raven claims will be transferred into Idaho Stibnite as part of the transaction. The consideration was reduced after two original Sawtooth prospects were removed from the acquisition.
“Acquiring two projects in the US prospective for silver, antimony, and copper diversifies Olympio’s exposure into the critical minerals space. The Olympio team have completed due diligence and are excited about the geological prospectivity of the projects,” Delaney says.
Raven comprises 27 claims covering the historical Raven and Silver King mines. Production records show Raven produced 85 tonnes containing 5,695 ounces of Ag and 33,173 pounds of copper (Cu) between 1919–1934, equating to average grades of 2,084g/t Ag and 19.51% Cu.
Silver King produced 477 tonnes containing 15,272 ounces of Ag between 1916–1950 at an average grade of 996g/t Ag.
Sawtooth comprises three prospects covering 80 claims near Idaho’s historic Sawtooth City mining camp. In a clarification to its 14 July announcement, Olympio removed previously reported historical exploration results for Sawtooth. The updated information states that silver and antimony occurrences have been recorded across the prospects, although no records of sampling methodology suitable for compliant reporting have been located.
Olympio Metals is an exploration company focused on critical minerals in Australia, Canada, and the US.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Olympio Metals
