Krait Critical Minerals (CSE: KRIT) has signed an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in a past-producing antimony property in Humboldt County, Nevada, expanding its U.S. antimony portfolio beyond Washington State.
The property consists of 17 contiguous unpatented federal mining claims covering about 354 acres, optioned from Sierra Antimony Corp., an arm’s-length private company. It hosts the historical Nevada King Mine, where workings dating back to the First World War, including four adits, two shafts and open cuts, are spread along a 2.25 kilometre trend. The site is roughly four hours north of Reno.
Historic production was brief and small. Government records show 30 tons of ore grading 50% antimony shipped in 1927, followed by 1.5 tons at 41% in 1941 and 2 tons at 54% in 1942, plus a further 5 tons with no reported grade. Krait itself notes that those figures reflect selectively mined, high grade material, and that government reports describe mineralization generally below 3% antimony across narrow widths.
Historical chip sampling returned antimony values of up to 9,800 ppm across 17 samples, while 11 samples returned gold values between 0.003 and 0.718 g/t and silver values of up to 8.3 g/t.
To earn the property, Krait must pay US$75,000 in cash over 2 years and issue 150,000 shares within 30 days, followed by C$200,000 worth of shares on each of the first and second anniversaries. The deal carries no minimum exploration spending requirement. Sierra retains a 2.5% net smelter return royalty, which Krait can reduce to 1.0% for US$2 million.
“The staged acquisition structure provides Krait with the flexibility to evaluate the property’s geological potential while managing our capital commitments,” said CEO Oscar Mendoza, who pointed to antimony’s growing role in U.S. defence and manufacturing supply chains.
Initial work will consist of a review of available geological and technical data before any fieldwork is planned.
The Nevada option follows Krait’s September acquisition of Nevada Hills Antimony LLC for US$100,000 in cash and 2.5 million shares. That deal gave the company contractual rights to the Bales antimony project and the Antimony Bell claims in Washington.
Krait Critical Minerals last traded at $1.00 on the CSE.
