MINING company Geophysx Jamaica has struck a deal with longtime copper and gold explorer C3 Metals to combine finds from Pennants, a gold mine in Clarendon which has been closed since 2004, with that of Main Ridge, Clarendon, to create the Super Block project.

Main Ridge, which has been an exploration target for C3 over the last few years, surrounds Pennant’s gold mine.

The joint venture agreement, which was signed on February 24, will allow both companies to explore “highly prospective” copper and gold exploration targets that appear to overlap the parties’ concessions.

Operated as an open pit mine between 2002 and 2004, Pennants is estimated to have produced approximately 16,000 gold ounces. Meanwhile, Main Ridge has revealed gold prospects extending 4km south-east and north-west of the former Pennants Gold Mine along the Bennett Fault in the parish.

Under the joint venture agreement, each party will have an initial 50 per cent interest in the Super Block Project. They will also elect two members to a management committee, which will include the president from each party and one additional member.

C3 Metals will act as the operator of the Super Block Project.

It means the company will be responsible for proposing annual work plans and budgets to be approved by the management committee and it will also receive a 5 per cent operator administrative fee until when a production decision is made on the project.

“The management committee has approved a 2024 work programme and budget of approximately US$950,000 or approximately US$475,000 per party. Both parties must contribute to funding further development at the Super Block Project on a pro rata basis or have their interest diluted as per the standard formula outlined by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation,” the companies said in a joint press statement.

C3 Metals will contribute approximately 4,400 hectares while Geophysx will contribute 5,470 hectares, a total of 9,870 hectares. C3 Metals will continue to hold a 100 per cent interest in 17,855 hectares in the parish, including the Bellas Gate project where the company is actively drilling with two rigs. The Bellas Gate project remains C3 Metals’ primary focus.

Overall, five gold prospects and four copper-silver prospects have been identified to date. The new partnership will allow C3 Metals to leverage Geophysx’s relationships and acumen in Jamaica, while Geophysx will lean on C3 Metals’ technical expertise.

“We are very excited to enter into this JV with Geophysx. The Pennants mine was a small, high-grade producer of some 16,000 ounces of gold. We believe the potential for additional discovery to be very high,” C3 Metals’ President and CEO Dan Symons said.

Geophysx is company founded by Robert “Bobby” Stewart, a member of the Jamaican family of late hotelier Gordon ‘’Butch’’ Stewart. Geophysx is said to have considerable financial bandwidth.

Stewart has had an ongoing business relationship with C3 Metals. Last year, Stewart acquired 5 per cent shareholding in C3 Metals through a private placement the company undertook in November 2023.

“We’re very happy to be partnering with C3 Metals on the Main Ridge Super Block Project. We have always been an advocate of combining our two halves of the mineral system around Main Ridge, as a necessity to build value and create a potentially very successful project here.

“Geophysx Jamaica is passionate about realising a new and exciting industry here in Jamaica which can bring tremendous social and economic benefit through sustainable and environmentally sound mineral exploration and development,” Stewart said.