Helix Resources moves to acquire White Hills copper-gold project in Arizona, US

Helix Resources Ltd has inked conditional binding agreements to acquire the White Hills copper-gold project in Arizona, US, a collection of 7 adjoining tenements covering an area of 23 square kilometres.

The project, which sits in a copper-gold belt (Arizona Arc) prospective for both porphyry and iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits, also crosses over with the Nevada Walker Lane gold trend, host to several deposits with multi-million-ounce gold resources in Arizona.

Previous historical exploration has included more than 3,000 soil samples taken on various grid spacings, pointing to a 1.2-kilometre by 500-metre zone of anomalous gold.

“Compelling evidence” of mineralised system

“The addition of the White Hills project in Northern Arizona provides the company with an exciting opportunity in a part of the world renowned for producing world-class copper/gold deposits,” Helix Resources executive chair Mike Povey said.

“The results of geochemical exploration to date has provided compelling evidence of a copper/gold system that is the best candidate that I have seen in many years for more intensive exploration efforts.

“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 USA, will be of great help in our exploration efforts.

“The board and management remain entirely focused on building long-term value for our shareholders, and we are confident this acquisition will play a key role in that growth.

“We look forward to progressing this outstanding opportunity.”

Previous exploration also included more than 600 rock chip samples, as well as airborne geophysics (magnetics and radiometrics), ground gravity, airborne hyperspectral, and 10 historical drillholes that were only analysed for gold.

HLX says the rock and soil samples point to several areas of copper and gold anomalism which could indicate mineralised systems.

Details of the acquisition

Helix is acquiring White Hills from two vendors; Centric Minerals Management Inc and White Hills Exploration LLC.

Centric holds five of the tenements as private mining sublease claims under a farm-in agreement with Newmont Corporation, with the remaining two state leases held by White Hills Exploration.

Under the acquisition agreement, Helix has agreed to acquire the project under the following terms:

• Payment of A$100,000 (including A$40,000 paid to date as the exclusivity fee) for claims fee and A$60,000 on signing a binding letter agreement.
• A$100,000 after formal agreements are signed and a capital raising by Helix of not less than A$1.0 million.
• Issue of Helix FPO shares to the value of A$1.3 million within 30 days of confirmation by Newmont of Helix completing the farm-In requirements of the Newmont Agreement (referenced below).

Newmont Agreement Obligations, Royalty and Buy Back Rights:

• Spending US$500,000 on the mining sublease claims by 5th January 2026 (meeting the farm in obligation so that the mining sublease claims will become 100% owned by Centric).
• Upon delivery by the company to Newmont of a positive feasibility study, the company shall pay US$500,000 to Newmont.
• If the company progresses to a pre-feasibility study (PFS) then Newmont has the right to back in. Newmont will pay to the Company 1.5 times the exploration expenditure to that point and form a 51:49% JV to develop the project.
• Newmont retains a production royalty of 2.5% net smelter return from the Property.

The project enjoys easy access year-round, being about 1.5 hours from Las Vegas, and advanced infrastructure, being just 50 kilometres from the refurbished Mineral Park copper porphyry mining operation, which is building to a capacity of over one hundred million pounds of copper equivalent per year.