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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 12, 2024) - Nova Pacific Metals Corp. (CSE: NVPC) (OTCQB: NVPCF) (FSE: YQ10) (WKN: A40GFH) (the "Company", or "Nova Pacific") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an option agreement with three arm's length vendors to acquire 100% ownership of 9 mineral tenures (the "Property") encompassing approximately 658 hectares located west-northwest of and contiguous to the Company's flagship Lara Project on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Anita Property
The Property encompasses the same highly prospective package of bimodal volcaniclastic rocks (McLaughlin Ridge Formation) that host the Company's Lara deposit. These rocks host numerous other polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide occurrences and mines in the Cowichan Uplift (Figure 1) and are correlative with the Myra Formation of the Paleozoic Sicker Group, which hosts ore at the notable Myra Falls mine of Trafigura Mining Group, approximately 140 km to the northwest. Approximately 4 Mt of Myra Falls' pre-mining estimate of over 40 Mt remain to be mined, after a 56-year mining history.
Figure 1
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Base and precious metal massive sulphide mineralization outlined on the Property by Falconbridge Ltd. in the 1980's was traced out on the surface and discontinuously in 56 drill holes (totalling 17,871 m) over a strike length of approximately 2.5 km. 'Anita Zone' mineralization, comprising 10-25% sulphides (pyrite ±pyrrhotite + sphalerite + chalcopyrite ±galena) appears to be at the same stratigraphic interval as the Lara Project's Coronation Trend, to the east-southeast (Figure 1). Samples across mineralized drill intercepts returned assay values as high as 2.30% Cu, 3.66% Zn, 0.49% Pb, 73.4 g/t Ag & 1.9 g/t Au across a true thickness of 4.8 m1 (Table, Figure 2), while the best surface channel sample assayed 3.38% Cu, 9.98% Zn, 0.66% Pb, 241 g/t Ag & 6.62 g/t Au across 0.3 m2. A recent grab sample from a surface exposure near the Anita Shaft also returned 1.655% Cu, 0.231% Zn, 0.223% Pb, 2,520 g/t Ag and 8.17 g/t Au3, suggesting local precious metal enrichment. The trend is untested at depths below approximately 300 m and for approximately 2 km to the west-northwest.
Option Terms
In order to exercise the option, the Company is obligated to pay the vendors the following aggregate consideration:
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upon the execution and delivery of the option agreement, $15,000 (paid) and 60,000 common shares in the capital of the Company (each, a "Nova Share") issued at a deemed price per Nova Share equal to the volume weighted average trading price of the Nova Shares on the CSE for the 10 trading days prior to the date of issuance (the "Market Price");
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$45,000 payable on November 1, 2025, with $15,000 paid in cash and the remaining $30,000 to be paid in either cash or by the issuance of Nova Shares at a deemed price per Nova Share equal to the Market Price at the time of such issuance, or any combination thereof, with such election at the sole discretion of the Company; and
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$60,000 payable on November 1, 2026, with $15,000 paid in cash and the remaining $45,000 to be paid in either cash or by the issuance of Nova Shares at a deemed price per Nova Share equal to the Market Price at the time of such issuance, or any combination thereof, with such election at the sole discretion of the Company.
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The Company has also agreed to pay the vendors $30,000 paid in either cash or by the issuance of Nova Shares at a deemed price per Nova Share equal to the Market Price at the time of such issuance, or any combination thereof, with such election at the sole discretion of the Company on November 1 (the "Annual Pre-Production Royalty Payment Date") on an annual basis (the "Annual Pre-Production Royalty"), beginning on November 1, 2029.
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The Company's obligation to pay the Annual Pre-Production Royalty in any year can be satisfied by incurring qualifying expenditures on the Property in the amount of at least $300,000 in any 12-month period preceding the applicable Annual Pre-Production Royalty Payment Date. Expenditures incurred in excess of $300,000 in the 24 months preceding the applicable Annual Pre-Production Royalty Payment Date may be applied towards the succeeding 24-month period as allocated by the Company.
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The Company may reduce the royalty granted to the vendors at any time from 2% of net smelter returns to 0.5% of net smelter returns by paying, or causing its permitted assign to pay, the sum of $2,000,000 to the vendors in cash or Nova Shares, and the Company also has the right to accelerate the exercise of the option by making all the required cash payments in advance of any deadline dates.
