Great Western Mining enters option deal over Eastside-Tango project

(Sharecast News) - Great Western Mining said on Thursday that it had entered into an option agreement with KGHM Polska Miedz over the Eastside-Tango copper porphyry project in Nevada, giving the global copper producer the right to earn up to a 100% interest in the asset.

The strategic minerals exploration and development company holds a 30% participating interest in Eastside-Tango, which combines Great Western's Eastside Mine claims with Bronco Creek Exploration's adjoining Tango claims.

Bronco Creek, a division of Elemental Royalty, holds the remaining 70%.

Under the option agreement, KGHM may acquire the full project interest through staged payments and a minimum exploration commitment of $5m over a six-year option period.

Great Western said execution and annual option payments over the six-year period would total $650,000, equivalent to $195,000 net to the company.

If KGHM exercises the option, the Eastside-Tango parties will retain a 2% net smelter royalty, of which Great Western's share would be 0.6%.

Further milestone payments would be payable as the project advances, including $500,000 on declaration of a resource, $750,000 on completion of a preliminary economic assessment and $1.0m on completion of a feasibility study.

Great Western's total share of those milestone payments would be $675,000.

The company said the agreement supported its strategy of partnering assets while retaining long-term upside exposure, allowing future funding of Eastside-Tango to be carried by a well-capitalised operator.

Chairman Brian Hall said the agreement with KGHM was a "clear endorsement" of the Eastside-Tango asset and Great Western's project generation strategy.

"Securing an agreement with a globally established copper producer validates the prospectivity of the wider district and highlights the potential value of the copper opportunity at our nearby Huntoon Copper Project," he said.

"This transaction delivers immediate value, while retaining long-term royalty exposure and transferring future funding of the asset to a well-capitalised operator."

The Eastside-Tango project targets a porphyry copper-molybdenum system about 18 kilometres southeast of Great Western's Huntoon Copper Project.

Great Western said the area includes quartz-copper oxide veining and widespread sericite-pyrite alteration over an area of about two by two kilometres.

Historical drilling in the 1960s and 1970s did not sufficiently test the system, while a 2021 induced polarisation survey by Great Western identified chargeability anomalies within untested zones.

Hall said Great Western was currently concentrating management and financial resources on its tungsten opportunities along a three-kilometre corridor between the Defender Mine and its M2 copper resource.

He said that project was the focus of a major exploration campaign initially aimed at delivering a maiden mineral resource estimate by the end of 2026.

At 1350 BST, shares in Great Western Mining were down 1.23% at 4p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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