IronRidge to swallow up Tekton Minerals

IronRidge Resources announced on Monday that it entered into a conditional agreement with the main shareholders of Tekton Minerals, to acquire their interests in Tekton.

The AIM-traded company said the agreement remained conditional on IronRidge securing agreements from the remaining shareholders of Tekton, representing 10% of Tekton's issued share capital, which would give 100% ownership of Tekton and its promising underlying gold exploration projects in Chad.

As part of the acquisition, Tekton's “highly skilled” technical and logistics team would join the IronRidge team to advance the projects and future growth strategies.

The Dorothe key target zone contained artisanal workings measuring one kilometre by three kilometres, and parallel vein zones measuring 1km by 200 metres, the board said.

Extensive 10,652m trenching and 9,768 soil sampling programmes had been completed over the Dorothe and Echbara license areas prior to the onset of the wet season, IronRidge confirmed.

Approximately 15 tonnes for 10,562 samples had been packed and ready for shipment to an accredited lab for preparation and analysis.

Field mapping observations and mineral occurrence multi-element geochemistry metal associations indicated the potential for an intrusion-related gold system exploration model, the board claimed, with the potential for “significant scale” and high-grade discoveries inferred.

The Ouaddaï Province represented a potential analogue of the 'Tintina Gold Province' in the Alaska and Yukon Territory, it added, with new artisanal mining sites discovered showing “ubiquitous” visible gold.

“We are extremely pleased with this latest acquisition which is part of the execution of our vision and growth strategy for Africa,” said chief executive Vincent Mascolo.

“The Chad portfolio represents a highly prospective ground holding with high-grade gold targets within an underexplored yet highly prospective gold province, potentially analogous to the world class Tintina Province in the Alaska and Yukon Territory.”

Mascolo said the size and extent of artisanal gold workings and the ubiquitous occurrence of free, visible gold endorsed the company’s strategy.

“The Tekton team offers extensive francophone exploration, logistics and government relations expertise gained throughout West and Central Africa, providing valuable synergies with the IronRidge team and its growth strategy.

“We are very pleased with the work programs completed to date and look forward to keeping shareholders and investors updated as more news becomes available.”