Evolution Mining has committed to Stage 2 of the Drummond gold joint venture, which will see it spend a further $4 million on the North Queensland exploration project.

Joint venture partner Andromeda Metals said the pace at which Evolution had met its Stage 1 commitments and the decision to proceed to Stage 2 underlined the prospectivity of the project to host high-grade epithermal gold deposits.

The Drummond tenements cover about 520sq km in an area about 90km south-east of Charters Towers and 50km south-west of Evolution’s Mount Carlton gold operation.

Stage 1 of the joint venture agreement involved Evolution earning a 51 per cent interest by making a cash payment of $300,000 to Andromeda and spending $2 million on exploration over a two-year period.

Stage 2 will see Evolution earn a further 29 per cent (for a total of 80 per cent ownership) in the project by making an additional cash payment of $200,000 and spending $4 million on exploration over two years.