- ATEX Resources (TSXV:ATX) has terminated an agreement to acquire the Apolo Project in Chile’s Maricunga Mineral Belt
- The project includes the Alicia, Roma and Condor properties, which cover 14,900 hectares
- Surface examinations conducted over the last few months determined that the properties were of no real interest
- ATEX Resources will instead focus its activities on the Valeriano copper-gold project, also located in Chile
- ATEX Resources (ATX) is currently steady and is trading at C$0.13 per share, with a market cap of $2.54 million
ATEX Resources (TSXV:ATX) has terminated an agreement to acquire the Apolo Project in Chile’s Maricunga Mineral Belt.
In a release from July 2019, the company announced its intentions to acquire the Alicia, Roma and Condor properties, which make up the Apolo Project.
While there were no records of significant exploration at the project, the Alicia and Roma properties’ position 30 kilometres southeast of Gold Fields’ Salares Norte high-sulphidation gold deposit was thought to indicate reasonable prospectivity.
The Condor property is also located close by, just 30 kilometres east of Salares Norte.
However, following surface examinations conducted over the last few months, including sampling and prospecting, ATEX Resources determined that the Apolo Project was of no real interest.
Several discussion were also undertaken with the owners of the property in an effort to extend project commitments to allow for additional work. However, these negotiations were unsuccessful, resulting in the termination of the acquisition agreement.
According to today’s announcement, ATEX Resources will now focus its attention on the Valeriano copper-gold property, located in the northern portion of the El Indio Belt in Chile.
Previous drilling efforts at the project by Phelps Dodge, Barrick Gold and Hochschild Mining between 1990 and 2014 intersected near-surface oxide gold mineralisation as part of a large copper-gold porphyry deposit.
Carl Hansen, CEO of ATEX Resources, said the results from sampling and prospecting of the Apolo properties did not meet with the company’s expectations.
“In the near term, we will focus our activities on the Chilean Valeriano copper gold project which hosts a large copper gold porphyry system overlain by near-surface, oxide gold mineralisation.
“ATEX has identified additional near surface oxide gold targets which it will examine while preparing to explore the porphyry mineralisation,” he said.
ATEX Resources (ATX) is currently steady and is trading at C$0.13 per share at 1:52pm EDT.
