24 April 2024
TORONTO, Ontario, April 24, 2024 - Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY; OTCQB: ATBHF) (the “Company” or “Aston Bay”) is pleased to announce that on April 23, 2024, it entered into a definitive agreement (the “Agreement”) with Emerald Geological Services (“EGS”) pursuant to which it has been granted an option (the “Option”) to acquire an undivided 80% beneficial interest in a property owned by EGS in Nunavut, Canada (the “Property”) (see March 1, 2024 Aston Bay press release). In addition, the Company is excited to announce the appointment of Dr. Elizabeth Turner to the Company’s Technical Advisory Board.
Highlights
“We are pleased to sign the definitive agreement for the Epworth Property,” stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay, “and we are very excited to have Dr. Elizabeth Turner join our Technical Advisory Board. Dr. Turner has extensive knowledge earned walking the ground in over three decades of fieldwork in northern Canada and more recently in central Africa. As well, her academic focus on the controls on sedimentary-rock-hosted mineralization makes her a formidable source of knowledge to add to our accomplished group of technical advisors and associates.
“The high-grade copper, silver and zinc mineralization at Epworth is in a style typical of the Central African Copper Belt that boasts several large, high-grade deposits. We also have similar mineralization at our Storm Project and look to leverage that knowledge and experience with our expanded team to make new discoveries at Epworth.”
Bruce MacLachlan from Emerald Geological Services added, "EGS is delighted to be moving forward with a motivated and experienced partner which shares our goal of making critical mineral discoveries in Canada, and which has already had success in doing so. After the last few field seasons we believe more than ever in the potential of the Epworth property to host significant deposits, and we are eager to get boots on the ground in the coming season."
Dr. Elizabeth Turner Appointed to Technical Advisory Board
Dr. Elizabeth Turner joins Aston Bay’s Technical Advisory Board on account of her expertise in the spatial and geological controls on sedimentary-rock-hosted ore deposits. Her expertise in ore-hosting sedimentary systems, ore-forming fluids and events, carbonate and siliciclastic lithofacies and diagenesis, stratigraphy, basin analysis, and hydrothermal systems is founded in >30 years of remote field research in Proterozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary basins in northern Canada and central Africa, together with extensive micro-analytical studies on the nature and evolution of ore-forming fluids, and controls imposed by ore-hosting rocks.
Dr. Turner has published extensively on sedimentary-rock-hosted ore systems in northern Canada (including the Storm Cu deposit and Polaris Zn district of which it is part, and the Nanisivik Zn deposit) and Central African Copperbelt (including both the polymetallic carbonate-hosted Kipushi deposit and siliciclastic-hosted Kamoa-Kakula Cu deposits in central Africa). Dr. Turner has a PhD in Geology from Queen’s University, and a BSc in Geology and BA in Languages from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the faculty at Laurentian University, she worked for Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office. Dr. Turner was the 2020 recipient of the Geological Association of Canada’s Robinson Medal for career achievement in Precambrian Geology.
Epworth Property Definitive Agreement
Terms of the Definitive Agreement
Under the terms of the Agreement, Aston Bay can earn an 80% undivided interest in the Property by spending a minimum of $3 million on qualifying exploration expenditures (“Expenditures”) over a four-year period. Aston Bay also agreed to make a cash payment of $50,000 to EGS on the business day following the date of the Agreement. EGS shall be the operator during the term of the Agreement, but the parties shall also establish a technical committee to approve all Expenditures. The technical committee will be composed of two members, one appointed by each of Aston Bay and EGS, with Aston Bay to have a casting vote.