Medallion Metals (ASX:MM8) has begun securing key environmental and mining approvals for the development of the Ravensthorpe Gold Project in Western Australia towards production.
The $21.88 million market capitalised company is targeting lodging a referral under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act in October 2024.
Medallion notes the minister’s determination as to whether the project requires assessment and to what level, will be critical for establishing the timeline for project development.
Multiple work streams are currently underway with the aim of accelerating negotiations with IGO (ASX:IGO), binding transaction documents, and a final investment decision (FID).
A 15,000m drilling program has also started at Ravensthorpe this week to grow the ‘high-grade’ sulphide underground resource in size and confidence, support metallurgical testwork and to test several high-priority near mine and regional exploration targets.
The studies are being advanced to support its sulphide development strategy towards FID. Medallion will also seek to release preliminary metrics on the proposed development in due course.
Under the proposed sulphide development strategy, open pit mining, processing of ore onsite, and disposal of tailings will no longer be a requirement at Ravensthorpe.
Managing Director Paul Bennett says advancing approvals is a critical path activity as the company de-risks the proposed development of the Ravensthorpe Project.
“The reduced disturbance footprint at Ravensthorpe and the potential redeployment of the established infrastructure at Forrestania combine to significantly enhance the environmental credentials of the development,” Bennett says.
“Utilisation of an established processing facility has many commercial and environmental benefits. Favourable permitting outcomes for the proposed development has the potential to enable rapid execution of the sulphide production strategy benefitting all stakeholders.
“New investment in Ravensthorpe will benefit the region given the recent setbacks to other operations in the area.”
In conjunction, Medallion is progressing a strategy to process the Ravensthorpe Project’s sulphide ore through the Cosmic Boy processing plant, which lies at Forrestania.
The sulphide ore component at Ravensthorpe is 770,000 ounces of gold at 4.3 grams per tonne, 36,000 tonnes of copper at 0.6% — starting within 50m of surface and hosted within a wider global resource of 1.3 million ounces of gold at 2.1g/t gold and 59,000t of copper.
Medallion Metals is a Western Australian gold and copper explorer focused on its Ravensthorpe Project, which lies 550km southeast of Perth.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Medallion
