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(Sharecast News) - Great Western Mining has exercised its option to acquire the Olympic Gold Project in Nevada's Mineral County, it announced on Thursday.
The AIM-traded firm said that in 2020, its wholly-owned US subsidiary, Great Western Mining Corporation (GWMC) entered into an agreement with Nevada Select Royalty - a subsidiary of Gold Royalty Corporation - to obtain an option for Olympic.
It said the project consists of 48 contiguous claims covering 825 acres, inclusive of the abandoned OMCO gold mine.
The agreement granted GWMC the right to explore and appraise the claims over four years, with annual option payments.
Subsequently, in 2021, GWMC staked an additional 12 claims east of the OMCO Mine.
With the option period nearing its end, GWMC had formally notified Nevada Select of its decision to exercise the option, completing the acquisition of the Olympic Gold Project by remitting the final option payment of $0.15m.
Post-acquisition, Nevada Select would be entitled to a net smelter royalty of 3% on seven claims (NOM), and on the 12 claims staked by GWMC in 2021, along with a further net smelter royalty of 1.75% on the remaining 41 claims, subject to an existing 1.25% net smelter royalty in favour of the previous claim holder, Sedi-Met.
During the option period, GWMC conducted extensive exploration at Olympic, including the drilling of 28 holes totaling 4,243 metres across three prospects.
Notably, new drilling at the OMCO Mine site identified an extension to the original productive vein.
At the Trafalgar Hill prospect, nine holes were drilled, with the best encountering gold at 8.9 grams per tonne over 1.52 metres from 86.8 metres, as the firm had previously reported.
Additionally, drilling at the West Ridge prospect identified a potential epithermal zone at depth, warranting further investigation.
In the southern region, soil sampling yielded promising results at the Rhyolite Dome prospect, with recent samples showing gold grades of up to 61, 58 and 51 parts per billion, and legacy samples reaching 207 parts per billion.
Rhyolite Dome, which had not been drilled before, would undergo a geophysical (IP) survey this year to ascertain drill targets.
Moreover, at the OMCO Mine site, substantial tailings and unprocessed stockpiles dating back nearly a century were identified.
An independent report commissioned in 2022 recorded an inferred resource of 31,000 tonnes grading 1.6 grams of gold per tonne and three grams of silver per tonne in the tailings, alongside exploration targets in the substrate beneath the tailings and in a coarse stockpile at the Olympic Mine.
That material would mark the initial processing for gold and silver concentrates through GWM's 50% owned Western Milling joint venture.
"The Olympic Gold Project has become an important component of our exploration activity as well as a potentially key source of feedstock for our milling operation, which is ready to start operations once an environmental permit is in place," said chairman Brian Hall.
"We are very pleased to have been able to move Olympic from option status to a fully integrated part of our portfolio."
At 1621 BST, shares in Great Western Mining Corporation were flat at 0.05p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
