Wealth Minerals signs option agreement for copper deposits in Western Canada

The Jesse Creek porphyry copper property, located north of Merritt, BC (pictured).

Junior exploration and development firm, Wealth Minerals (CVE:WML), has signed an option agreement for a 100% interest in porphyry copper deposits located in British Columbia, Canada.

Under the option agreement Wealth must pay US$1 million in cash and issue 3 million shares to the property owners over a four-year period. The agreement covers the Jesse Creek porphyry copper property, located north of Merritt, BC and is subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty reserved by the property owners. Wealth can purchase half or 1% of the royalty at any time for a lump sum payment of $2 million.

As part of the agreement, the exploration company is also required to file all work as assessment work in favour of the property and maintain the property in good standing.

Wealth mainly focuses on lithium projects in South America and its president Tim McCutcheon said the company had raised flow-through funds for lithium exploration in Canada. When no suitable lithium properties were found in Canada, the company focused on the projected demand growth for metals related to renewable energy.

"Jesse Creek's copper potential fits with our overall strategy to participate in renewable energy markets and allows us to deploy legacy flow-through cash to the upside benefit of shareholders," McCutcheon said in a statement.

The Jesse Creek property is divided in 24 mineral claims and covers 6,952 hectares in the Nicola Mining Division of BC, approximately 7 kilometres east of the Craigmont Mine. Exploration work by Dundarave Resources, now Nano One Materials (CVE: NNO), in 2012 detected copper, gold and molybdenum mineralization at the site. Recent geological mapping and petrographic work has provided evidence that Mineralization controls are similar to the Highland Valley porphyry copper deposits in the Guichon Creek Batholith.

Wealth plans to create a 200 metre spaced soil geochemistry grid, gain additional intellectual property coverage for the north of the previous grid and conduct 5,000 metres of follow-up drilling.