Integra Resources Corp. aims to buy Kinross Gold Corp.'s DeLamar gold project in Idaho for C$7.5 million in cash and 9.9% of Integra Resources' shares, dangling the recent success of the company's management in sealing a C$590 million deal for Integra Gold Corp. to be acquired by Eldorado Gold Corp.

Integra Resources is headed by much of the same team that ran Integra Gold, including George Salamis, president and CEO of Integra Resources and chairman at Integra Gold.

DeLamar, and the adjacent Florida Mountain property Integra Resources is also buying for US$2 million, bear "striking similarities" to the early stages of the Sigma-Lamaque project, which drew Eldorado to take over owner Integra Gold, Salamis said in a statement. Salamis could not be reached for comment.

Brent Cook, an analyst who runs Exploration Insights, sees potential in the project and the exploration approach. They have "decent exploration ideas chasing deeper feeders," he said.

Cook does not have an opinion on price for the stock but said he had met with the company.

In short, Integra Resources aims to pursue extensions to gold mineralization that Kinross and other operators mined on the project.

Over the past century or so, Integra says DeLamar produced about 1.6 million ounces of gold and 100 million ounces of silver in open pit and underground mines. The mine last closed in 1998, when gold prices were low, then under US$300/oz. Gold prices have since surged, hitting over US$1,000/oz for the better part of the past decade.

Integra Resources noted that most drilling on the project was less than 100 meters deep. It plans to go deeper to see if it can find more gold mineralization. Cook points out this has not been done by past operators.

It is not entirely clear why Kinross wants to sell the project. A company spokesperson said in an email that the asset was "noncore" and last in production in 1998. Likely, the small asset with historical resources does not move the needle for Kinross, which is focused on developing large gold mines.

Meanwhile, through the deal, Kinross keeps its foot in the door to potential exploration success. The agreement includes an initial 2.5% net smelter royalty over potential production on certain DeLamar claims and also gives Kinross a 9.9% toehold in Integra Resources.

There are two key stipulations to the sale agreement: Integra Resources needs to raise at least C$25 million and it also has to list on the TSX Venture Exchange for the deal to go ahead.

Apart from deeper exploration, Integra Resources is also reanalyzing data from the known deposit to produce a resource estimate on areas that were not mined. This will be done in the coming weeks, it said.