Marifil Mines says deal to sell Toruel project to Netco Silver terminated

Marifil Mines (CVE:MFM) says the deal to sell 100 per cent of its Toruel copper-silver project in Argentina to Netco Silver has been terminated. 

The agreement was initially signed in September this year. No other details on the cancellation were provided in the statement released Tuesday evening. 

Under the terms of the now-terminated deal, Netco would have issued 3.5 million share purchase warrants to Marifil.

The transaction was subject to a number of conditions, including Netco having at least $825,000 in funds, of which $375,000 would be used to purchase claims from an underlying owner, and $450,000 would be used for a drill program at Toruel. The deal was also reliant on regulatory approvals.  

On March 3, 2011, Netco and Marifil struck an option agreement, under which Netco could earn a 70 per cent stake in the Toruel property. The property covers 5,736 hectares and is located 25 kilometres southeast of the village of Los Menucos, Rio Negro. 

Netco finished prospecting and surface sampling on the acreage and reported assays from 162 surface samples. Rock samples returned assays from 0.0 to 0.714 grams per tonne (g/t), while channel samples returned 0.0 to 0.379 g/t gold, 56.8 g/t silver and over one per cent lead over 0.95 metres. 

Work also revealed new vein structures outside the known Toruel vein, where past drilling had hit 6.1 metres of 1,998 g/t silver and 5.34 per cent copper. 

Marifil is a Canadian exploration company that focuses on Argentina. Through its joint venture opportunities, it has been able to develop a diverse portfolio of properties, including several with bonanza grade gold, silver, copper and indium values.

The company has a land position of 20 properties, totalling more than 400,000 hectares within nine provinces of Argentina. It recently resumed the operator role at its Las Aguilas property after miner Prophecy Platinum (CVE:NKL) decided not to move forward with their joint venture agreement. 

Earlier this year, the exploration-stage resource company hired Robert J. Rennie to aide with the proposed spin-out of its fertilizer-related assets, under a consulting services agreement.

Marifil’s flagship potash properties, K-2 to K-6, are located in the Neuquén Basin in Argentina, where the company said it has identified "extremely significant potash targets" on all five properties through a review of oil well drill logs.