Drummond is an early stage gold project covering around 520sq.km, 50km south-west of Evolution's Mt Carlton mine.

During stage one, Evolution can earn 51% by paying Andromeda $300,000 cash and spending $2 million on exploration over two years.

Evolution can move to 80% during stage two by paying an additional $200,000 and spending $4 million on exploration over two years.

Evolution said outcropping gold-bearing veins of the same style and scale to the nearby Pajingo gold-silver deposit - which the company used to own - occurred within the project.

Vein textures at several prospects in the project suggest the system is largely preserved, and that the most prospective level for gold mineralisation remains untested by drilling.

"The Drummond project is an exciting opportunity to leverage our expertise in epithermal gold deposits on a technically compelling project close to our Mount Carlton operation," Evolution vice president discovery Glen Masterman said.

Earlier this year, Andromeda completed reverse circulation at the Bunyip prospect, subsequently declaring it a Pajingo-style discovery.  

Results included 2m at 4.36 grams per tonne gold from 8m; 2m at 1.66gpt gold from 13m; 1m at 2.32gpt gold from 61m; and 4m at 5.15gpt gold from 7m.

Andromeda said the JV deal would allow it to focus on its Poochera halloysite-kaolin project in South Australia, where it reported a resource of 23.9 million tonnes of "bright white" kaolinised granite last week.

Shares in Andromeda jumped by 16.7% to 0.7c, valuing the company at less than $7 million.

Evolution shares rose by 2.6% to $2.72 ahead of the company's Sydney strategy day tomorrow.