MOU for creation of JV to process gold and silver

RNS Number : 0698S

Great Western Mining Corp. plc

12 July 2022

 

GREAT WESTERN MINING CORPORATION PLC

("Great Western", "GWM" or the "Company")

MOU for creation of JV to process gold and silver

Joint Venture to enable processing of Company's as well as third party material

Great Western Mining Corporation PLC is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding to create a Joint Venture ("JV") with an experienced Nevada mining contractor, for processing gold and silver from waste material on its mineral concessions in Nevada.

Great Western and its proposed partner are currently negotiating a fully-termed operating agreement which will follow a standard industry format used in Nevada. 

The JV will process material using both gravity separation and a contained flotation system, full details of which will be announced upon signing of the formal agreement.

The JV has now:

· Secured the use of a suitable mill site on private land

· Determined an initial design for a (1) gravity separation plant and a (2) flotation plant

· Identified and secured the equipment required

The Company has allocated up to $100,000 to the JV to facilitate the detailed planning stage and submission to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection.

The equipment identified by the JV will in most cases be pre-used mine equipment sourced locally, refurbishment cost of which is expected to be significantly less than the cost of new equipment, providing for economical start-up costs and a faster lead-time to commissioning.

The JV will initially process material from the Company's Mineral Jackpot and Olympic Gold properties. The JV will also process material owned by the JV partner and the partners will together source additional material from third parties for processing on a commercial basis.

At Mineral Jackpot, Great Western has over 50 spoil heaps left from five adjacent and connected historical mines which produced gold and silver in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century.  The recently upgraded 14 km road to the site will enable a 20-ton dumper truck to load spoil material from this mountainous area.

At Olympic Gold, three sources of waste material have been identified and are being extensively tested for reprocessing, close to the high-yielding OMCO gold mine where operations ceased during the Second World War:

· Tailings, to be processed through the contained flotation circuit

· A stockpile of mined material never previously processed

· Substantial spoil heaps

The plant will be located at a site which has previously been used for mineral processing operations and is approximately equidistant to Mineral Jackpot and Olympic Gold, on a major highway providing easy vehicle access.

Great Western Chairman Brian Hall commented:  "At the end of 2020 we successfully produced a doré bar of gold and silver from spoil material at our Mineral Jackpot claims and established the potential for processing such material on a commercial scale.  An initial low level gravity separation project was evaluated but this has since expanded as other material has been identified on our concessions, including significant tailings at the Olympic Gold Project.  The ingredients are now in place to create a commercial plant to handle such material from all our concessions, where available, as well as processing material for third parties on a commercial basis.  This opens a new chapter in Great Western's story which will run in parallel with our efforts to explore for and identify significant reserves of precious metals and copper, aiming to achieve an order of magnitude increase in value for shareholders.  We will provide more information on the joint venture, the plant and the detailed research we have carried out on the resources available to us as soon as we are in a position to do so."

For further information:

Great Western Mining Corporation PLC
Brian Hall, Chairman	[phone]
Max Williams, Finance Director	[phone]
Davy (NOMAD, Euronext Growth Adviser & Joint Broker) Brian Garrahy	[phone]
Novum Securities (Joint Broker) Jon Belliss	[phone]
Walbrook PR (PR advisers) Nick Rome	[phone]

Notes to Editors

The Company has a large tract of acreage in Mineral County, Nevada. The area consists of rugged, mountainous terrain, which means that large parts of it remain under-explored. Mineral potential is hosted by the regional Walker Lane Structural Belt, the largest structural and metallogenic belt in Nevada, yet one of the least explored in recent times, with gold, silver and copper currently produced in Mineral County.  Great Western has seven distinct concession areas which offer the potential for exploiting (1) short term gold and silver deposits and (2) long-term, world-class copper deposits. 

The Olympic Gold Project is held by Great Western under the terms of the Olympic Option Agreement dated 21 May 2020 and the option must be exercised before material can be removed from site for commercial exploitation.  The total purchase price for the Olympic Gold Project was $150,000 of which $75,000 has been paid to date and the remaining balance of $75,000 will be paid on exercise of the option.  The vendors of Olympic Gold, together with historical royalty interest holders, will jointly be entitled to a 3% net mineral returns production royalty.

The state of Nevada is generally considered to be one of the world's most mining friendly jurisdictions.  While tightly regulated and environmentally conscious, Nevada welcomes the mining industry.  Great Western takes care to ensure that its claims are maintained in good standing and all regulations observed. 

There are numerous gold and silver prospects on the Company's acreage which are currently being explored and appraised, including extensive historic mine workings which offer the opportunity for secondary recovery through the proposed plant. 

Through extensive drilling over a five-year period, GWM has established a Mineral Resource on its first target area known as M2, of 4.3 million tonnes at 0.45% copper, for 19,000 tonnes of contained copper metal. This resource has been independently reported in accordance with JORC guidelines. 

 

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