Australian mining company Ora Gold has completed the previously announced acquisition of the Murchison project in Western Australia from Sipa Resources.

Sipa Exploration had sold the Murchison project to Ora Gold, which included interests in tenements and other assets. The project covers a 460km² area in the Murchison region, which is a highly prospective part of the Goldfields region in Western Australia.

It sits next to and along strike from gold occurrences and prospective geology and fertile structures in the Murchison and Abbotts greenstone belts.

The companies signed the deal last month. Ora Gold closed the transaction by paying $600,000 in cash and issuing 133.33 million shares at $0.006 apiece, which amounts to $800,000, bringing the total amount of the transaction to $1.4m.

Of the issued shares, 66.66 million shares are subject to voluntary escrow of 12 months. The other half, which will be issued three months after the transaction’s closing, is also subject to an escrow of 12 months.

Ora Gold CEO Alex Passmore said: “We are pleased to announce the completion of the Murchison Project from Sipa Resources. The tenure being acquired is complementary to Ora Gold’s existing tenement package in the Murchison-Meekatharra Area and triples the company’s total land holding.

“We believe the new tenure has strong potential to host additional high-grade gold deposits and we look forward to embarking on a regional exploration programme across the various prospects in October 2023.”

The company plans to conduct regional exploration including soil sampling, air-core drilling and targeted reverse circulation (RC) drilling as several prospects at Murchison.

One of the key target areas of the project, Abernethy South, is likely to show enriched levels of gold mineralisation. Other areas such as West Caledonian, West Reedy and East Burnakurra will also be tested for gold mineralisation.