GOLD company Gascoyne Resources has achieved a significant milestone with the granting of a mining licence for its wholly-owned Glenburgh project. The company signed a native title agreement in early February, paving the way for the rapid granting of the lease in WA’s Gascoyne region, 250km east of Carnarvon.
The agreement with the Wajarri Yamatji Native Title Claimant Group includes opportunities for community development including education, training, employment and contracting opportunities.
“The signing of the project wide native title agreement is a significant step forward for the Glenburgh project,” Gascoyne managing director Mike Dunbar said.
“It allows for the grant [of] the current [mining lease application], any future mining lease applications and other tenure required for the development of the project. It also provides the Wajarri Yamatji with a range of opportunities, which will benefit the region.”
Gascoyne spent 15 months negotiating with the local group to establish what it called a “mutually beneficial agreement”.
The mining lease, granted on 12 February, covers 3021 hectares of land for 21 years. Within the lease there are several known deposits with an indicated and inferred resource estimate of 21.1 million tonnes grading 1.5 grams per tonne of gold for 1 million ounces of gold.
An additional identified high grade extension to the Shelby deposit, which has yet to be included in the resource estimate, returned drilling results of 17m grading 4.2g/t of gold and 14m grading 4.1g/t of gold.
Gascoyne would now focus on finalising and submitting the applications needed for the operating licences which include the mining proposal and mine closure plans for approval by the Department of Mines and Petroleum.
The company reported it would “continue to evaluate the Glenburgh gold deposits to delineate meaningful increases in the resource base and progress project permitting, while also continuing to explore the Dalgaranga project with the view to moving towards a low capital cost development as rapidly as possible”.
A 12-month feasibility study completed last year indicated the project had a mining inventory of 4.9mt grading 2g/t of gold for 316,000oz of gold during a period of at least four years. The mine was expected to bring in a revenue of $448 million across its life, based on an operating cash cost of $909 per ounce.

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