Columbus Gold Corp. on Jan. 20 said it secured an option from Seabridge Gold Inc. to fully acquire the latter's Castle gold project in Nevada.

Columbus has until Feb. 21 to exercise the option by issuing 1.5 million shares to Seabridge for transferring the lease, and 250,000 shares to underlying lessor Platoro West.

Platoro West will be paid US$25,000 per year for the 99-year lease term.

In addition, Platoro West agreed to reduce an existing net smelter returns royalty from 3.5% to 2%, subject to Columbus' right to buy back 1% for a one-off payment of US$2.5 million

The project covers 9.6 square kilometers and hosts a historical near-surface oxide gold resource of 272,153 ounces of gold.

The Castle project sits next to Columbus' Eastside gold-silver project and will add 119 additional claims at Eastside to 844 claims and increase the company's land position to 67.6 square kilometers.

In December 2016, Columbus Gold announced an inferred resource of 654,000 ounces of gold and 4.0 million ounces of silver at Eastside.