Astra Exploration (TSXV: ASTR; US-OTC: ATEPF), which owns 80% of the Pampa Paciencia project in northern Chile, has signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 20% of the project from joint-venture partner Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM).
The 3,840-hectare gold-silver project is less than 15 km from two producing mines - the Sierra Gorda open-pit copper mine owned by South32 (LSE: S32; ASX: S32) and KGHM, and BHP's (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) Spence open-pit copper mine.
"Acquiring the remaining 20% interest enables Astra to control 100% of critical prospective ground and expands our strategic foothold in the emerging epithermal district of northern Chile," Brian Miller, Astra's CEO, stated in a press release.
Under the agreement, Astra will issue SQM 1.45 million common shares in its company at a price of 12 ? per share, its closing share price on Nov. 2.
Astra noted that it has completed drilling, mapping and sampling, geophysical surveys and localized trenching and has defined a vein boulder field over about 75% of the project area. "The veins do not outcrop as the majority of the project area is covered by a thin layer of gravels and caliche," the Vancouver-based company stated, "but the vein float can be used to identify areas of high prospectivity."
Gold and silver mineralization in quartz veins at the low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver deposit have returned grades of 93.3 grams gold per tonne and 301 grams silver per tonne in surface rock chip samples, and 7.71 grams gold over 3.75 metres within a broader 16.3 metre interval grading 2.3 grams gold and 18.73 grams silver, in drill hole PP15-007.
Astra notes that the project is adjacent to the Cerro Dominador solar power plant, which it describes as a "potential source of green renewable energy."
Over the last year in Toronto, Astra has traded in a range of 11 ? and 37.5 ? per share.
The company has about 37.1 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of about $4.5 million.