Great Western LON:GWMO, the AIM-listed mining and metal refinery company operating in Nevada has entered into a pooling agreement with fellow exploration company, Bronco Creek Exploration Incorporated, part of royalty firm, EMX [NYSEAMERICAN:EMX].
The agreement sees the two explorers pool resources around Great Western’s Eastside tenements in Mineral Country. Eastside is a newer development (bearing in mind that Great Western is primarily exploring historic mineworks that have been operating since the nineteenth century) for Great Western, and about 11-miles from the Dublin-based explorer’s current copper exploration focus in Huntoon Valley, as reported. Chairman, Brian Hall has warned in the past that to get a fully-blown copper project into production would be a long-term undertaking, which is why the company has been prioritising gold and silver exploration and the innovative initiative to develop a mill to refine gold found on its tenements and from other local gold miners.
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Bronco Creek’s Tango Project abuts Great Western’s holdings at Eastside Mine, and both projects are likely looking at developing the same copper anomaly. Bronco will lead the exploration of what has been reclassified as the Pooled Project with a view to advance the site under an exploration and option agreement.
As it stands the Pooled Project is to operate under a 70:30 agreement, with Bronco Creek bearing 70% of benefits and liabilities and 30% to Great Western, which is an approximate reflection of the two firms’ relevant claims on the ground. Great Western does stress that this isn’t a joint venture agreement, as both explorers will continue to own their respective claims.
Environmental Permit for mill secured
Elsewhere Great Western secured its Environmental Permit for the mill, allowing the joint venture, Western Milling, to start gravity operations at the mill. The Environmental Permit ensures that Western Milling has designed the mill site in an appropriate way that will avoid water table contamination. The JV has submitted a permit to allow it to commence the chemical leaching process in refining gold.
Although no testing of the process will be allowed until this second permit is in place, the mood music from the regulator is that everything checks out, so Great Western has started to ship bulk loads in preparation for the mill being commissioned and has the plant and machinery in situ ready to hook up and test the system.
Hall said: “Long delays in reaching this point have been mainly outside our control but we are very excited to have a green light to go ahead and operate the plant. There is still a lot to do and we and will report on the next stages.”
To fund this and other operations, including the West Huntoon copper exploration work, Great Western undertook a GBP500,000 placement in June. The company’s shares opened trading today (13th August) at 0.0388p. Over one-year shares are down 31%. Over the year-to-date Great Western’s shares are up 3.5%, with the company’s share price ranging between 0.03p and 0.08p over a 52-week period. The company has a market cap of GBP3.2m.
