Published: March 11, 2020 |

[Click image to enlarge]

Pancontinental Resources Corporation has executed, with the Brewer Gold Receiver, an exclusive mining lease with option to purchase the highly prospective former Brewer Gold Mine property. Brewer is located 12 kilometers northeast along trend from the producing Haile Gold Mine on the gold-rich and underexplored Carolina Slate Belt in South Carolina.

“In October 2019 we submitted our proposal, in cooperation with Environmental Risk Transfer (ERT), to explore and possibly purchase Brewer. In January 2020 we were selected by the receiver, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In February we finalized our option agreement, based on our winning proposal,” said Pancon’s President and CEO Layton Croft.

“We now intend to commence exploration work, with our initial phase of drilling to be completed this summer. We are pursuing a multi-million AuEq ounce high-grade gold-copper resource between 300-600 meters below surface. Our immediate goal is to discover significant new gold-copper mineralization in 2020. ERT, meantime, brings unmatched integrated financial, operational, technical, and risk management expertise to define, mitigate, and contain environmental and financial liability,” added Croft.

According to the option agreement, there will be two components of the purchase price if Pancon exercises its option to purchase:

1) the cost of an environmental remedy and financial assurance for owning all environmental liability at Brewer to date, which will be a number based on ERT’s environmental due diligence during the option term that informs upcoming negotiations with the Receiver, US EPA and SC DHEC.

2) half of total past costs incurred by SC DHEC and US EPA to clean and manage Brewer since 2000, which, according to Pancon’s and ERT’s winning proposal, will be paid after future mining operations are commissioned, in ten annual installments of 10 percent, and conditioned on the future mine operator’s ability to pay based on a profit formula to be determined by the parties.

About Brewer Gold Mine

Gold was discovered at Brewer in the 1800s. Between 1987-1995, the Brewer Gold Company (BGC), a U.K.-owned entity, produced 178,000 ounces of oxide gold from open pits that extended to 50-metre depths, where copper and gold-rich sulfides were exposed but could not be processed by BGC’s oxide heap leach processing facility. Brewer is a high sulphidation system driven by a sub-volcanic intrusive and possibly containing a large copper-gold porphyry system at depth, as indicated by: widely known prospective geology, including diatreme breccias; associated high sulphidation alteration; gold and copper mineralization; and geophysics.

BGC mined more than 12,000,000 tons of mineralized material and waste rock from two open pits until 1995, when mining operations ceased. From 1995-1999, BGC performed initial reclamation activities under the direction of SC DHEC. BGC was unsuccessful in achieving the goal of a fully-reclaimed, clean site, and ultimately informed SC DHEC that it intended to abandon the site. In 1999, BGC abandoned the site, leaving SC DHEC and US EPA to handle reclamation activities and address conditions posing environmental risk. In 2005, Brewer was designated a US EPA Superfund site as per the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensations and Liability Act (CERCLA).

BGC’s abandonment of the property left the department and US EPA with no options for addressing water quality threats from the site other than using the CERCLA response actions funded by US EPA and SC DHEC. SC DHEC and US EPA retained access to the property for purposes of constructing, operating, and maintaining the wastewater treatment plant and otherwise carrying out the CERCLA remedy, however they did not have the legal authority to manage long-term access to the property for other purposes or to make decisions concerning other uses or final disposition of the property, including exploration and future mining of Brewer.

SC DHEC, with US EPA’s support, sought appointment of a temporary receiver to manage access to the property for interested third parties. Such a receiver would have the authority to facilitate leasing, sale, or other use or disposition of the abandoned property, including potential renewal of mining exploration and development at the property, and would promote resolution of SC DHEC and US EPA’s action to address continued environmental threats at the site. The Court of Common Pleas for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of South Carolina granted SC DHEC’s request and appointed the Brewer Gold Receiver on February 4, 2019.

About Pancon Resources
Pancon is a Canadian-based junior mining exploration company focused on the prolific and underexplored Carolina Slate Belt in South Carolina, USA. Pancon’s 100 percent owned Jefferson Gold Project surrounds the former Brewer Gold Mine, located 12 km along trend northeast from the Haile Gold Mine, which produced 131,819 ounces of gold in 2018. In addition, Pancon has four nickel-copper-cobalt projects in Northern Ontario, surrounding or near producing or former mines in proven and safe mining districts.

To stop by Pancon Resources’ website, CLICK HERE

Be in-the-know when you’re on-the-go!

CLICK HERE to register your email address.

Copyright © 2020 Mining Connection LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.

For licensing permission, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)