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Japan Gold (TSXV: JG) announced on Monday the formation of a country-wide alliance with Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD, TSX: ABX) to jointly explore, develop and mine properties in Japan.

The Canadian company also announced additional six new project in the Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province.

The partnership spans 28 out of the firm’s 30 current projects and Barrick will sole fund a two-year initial evaluation of each project and potentially a three-year second phase if they meet the mining titan’s criteria. 

Shares in Japan Gold surged 40% in Toronto to C$0.45 each at the beginning of the day and than closed up 9.4%, giving the company a market capitalization of C$49 million.

The alliance does not include the Ikutahara Project in Hokkaido and the Ohra-Takamine Project in Kyushu and Japan Gold will continue to advance these two projects independently.

“We are pleased to partner with Japan Gold, who have assembled an impressive portfolio of exploration tenements within the renowned epithermal gold provinces of Japan.” Barrick’s CEO, Mark Bristow, commented.

“We look forward to advancing our partnership by combining Barrick’s technical and financial resources with Japan Gold’s first mover advantage, to deliver new world class gold discoveries.” he said.

“Japan Gold is delighted to welcome Barrick Gold to Japan. As Barrick is one of the pre-eminent gold producers in the world we look forward to a very positive partnership.” Japan Gold’s Chairman and CEO, John Proust commented.

“Every great new frontier starts with geology. Japan is an ideal, underexplored, setting to make new large low sulphidation epithermal gold discoveries” he said.

Japan Gold acquires six new projects

In conjunction with the Barrick Alliance, Japan Gold has acquired six new projects in the northern part of the Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province and now holds a dominant position in a district which hosts most of the low-sulphidation epithermal mineralization in the province.

In excess of 11 million ounces of gold have been produced from low-sulphidation epithermal deposits within the province.

The six new projects include: Kushikino-Iriki; OT-Yaeyama Extension; Mizobe-Onoyama; Mizobe 1^st Extension; Onoyama-Yamagano Extension; and the Tobaru-Fuke Extension and comprise 47,853 hectares.