Forum Energy Metals inks $30m option with Rio on Janice Lake

Vancouver- based junior Forum Energy Metals' (CVE:FMC) stock exploded 75% Thursday morning, after it was announced the company had signed an option agreement with Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) to earn an interest in the Janice Lake property in north-central Saskatchewan.

Janice Lake is about 55km southeast of Key Lake Saskatchewan, and has geologic features that are analogous to the giant Udokan development project in Russia, which is largest undeveloped copper project in the world.

In 2018, Forum completed a successful first pass drill program at Janice Lake. All four drill holes intersected shallow native copper mineralization above 80m in depth, including Hole FEM 1, which intersected 19m grading 1.0% Cu and 6.5 g/t Ag.

Under the terms of the Forum – RTEC agreement, RTEC will commit to spending $3 million within 18 months on the property with the option to vest a 51% interest by spending $10 million over four years. Upon vesting its interest, RTEC can, at its option, earn a further 29% interest (for a total 80% interest) by spending a further $20 million over three years.

Forum currently holds an option to earn 100% interest in the Janice Lake project by providing Transition Metals corp. (TSXV: XTM) with 8 million shares of Forum, completing expenditures of $250,000 over six months, and issuing cash option payments of $250,000 over 48 months ($50,000 received).

Once vested, Transition will retain a 2.0% net smelter return royalty (NSR) of which 0.75% NSR can be purchased for $1.5 million. Transition is also entitled to a $1 million cash payment upon the completion of a feasibility study and an additional $5 million cash payment within 12 months of achieving commercial production.

By mid-day, trading volume had reached 10,000, three times the daily average of 3,522. Forum Energy Metals has a C$5.2 million market capitalization.