The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Investing at least $13.4M to explore Thorn copper-gold project North of 60 Mining News – November 4, 2022
Bornite copper mineralization and visible gold in a sample collected from the Metla target about 25 kilometers southeast of Camp Creek on Brixton's Thorn project in Northern BC.
Click on image for larger Thorn copper geochemistry map.
Brixton Metals Corp. Nov. 2 announced that BHP Group Ltd. has agreed to invest at least C$13.4 million to acquire a 19.9% interest in the junior exploring the Thorn copper-gold project in Northern British Columbia.
"We are excited to welcome BHP, a leading global resource company, to the Brixton share register and believe their investment speaks to the strength of the Thorn Project and Brixton's geological team," said Brixton Metals Chairman and CEO Gary Thompson.
Under the strategic investment agreement, BHP will acquire the number of shares needed to own a 19.9% interest in Brixton, on an undiluted basis, upon the completion of a private placement at C18 cents per share.
The number of shares purchased, and BHP's total investment, will be dependent upon whether Crescat Portfolio Management LLC elects to exercise its right to maintain its current interest in Brixton, which currently stands at around 13.5%.
If Crescat does not elect to exercise its rights, then BHP will invest C$13.4 million to acquired 74.36 million Brixton shares.
If Crescat decides to fully exercise its participation, then BHP's investment would be C$13.9 million to acquire 77.35 million shares, and Crescat would purchase 12.04 million shares for C$2.2 million.
As part of the agreement, Brixton has agreed to invest at least 90% of the funds raised in this financing into exploration at Thorn, a 2,600-square-kilometer (1,004 square miles) property in BC's Golden Triangle that hosts large-scale porphyry copper-gold-silver-molybdenum and volcanic-sediment hosted gold-silver targets.
It is expected that BHP is primarily interested in porphyry copper potential that has been identified in the Camp Creek target at Thorn. Highlights from drilling at Camp Creek include:
• 554 meters averaging 0.24% copper, 0.57 grams per metric ton gold, and 43.18 g/t silver in hole THN19-150.
• 976.5 meters averaging 0.22% copper, 0.07 g/t gold, 2.06 g/t silver, and 154.4 parts per million molybdenum in hole THN21-183.
• 821.3 meters averaging 0.24% copper, 0.1 g/t gold, 2.44 g/t silver, and 174.3 ppm molybdenum in hole THN21-184.
• 967.7 meters averaging 0.25% copper, 0.09 g/t gold, 2.39 g/t silver, and 186 ppm molybdenum in hole THN22-201.
The Thorn property also hosts Trapper, a volcanic-hosted epithermal target about five miles (eight kilometers) southeast of Camp Creek.
In addition to high-grade gold, such as the 64 meters of 5.74 g/t gold cut in drill hole THN22-205, geologists have collected rock samples in the Trapper area with some of the highest-grade copper identified on the Thorn property.
Rock samples with grades as high as 5.1%, 2.76%, 1.93%, and 1.22% copper have been collected from the Trapper area.
Samples with massive bornite copper mineralization and visible gold have been collected from Metla, a target about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) southeast of Trapper. Assays results for the Metla samples are pending.
"We believe that the Thorn Project has the potential to help fill the immense demand for critical metals, such as copper, as our economy transitions to a sustainable low carbon and electrified world," said Thompson.
Any future exploration of this potential is expected to have the financial and technical backing of the world's largest mining company.
In connection with its investment in Brixton, BHP has the right to maintain its ownership position in Brixton, require the junior to form a joint technical advisory committee with the major to guide the advancement of Brixton projects, the right to nominate either a director or an observer to Brixton's board, the right of first offer on any transfer of all or part of the Thorn project, and the right of first refusal over any net smelter return royalty in excess of 1% relating to Thorn.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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