Maroon Gold has agreed to take up mining operations on behalf of Laneway Resources at the latter’s 100% owned Agate Creek Gold Project in North Queensland, Australia.

Agate Creek Gold Project-trial-mining

Image: Trial mining at the Agate Creek Gold Project in Australia. Photo: courtesy of Laneway Resources.

As per the mining and processing agreement signed by the parties, Maroon Gold will be responsible for mining and processing up to 100,000 tonnes of high grade near surface ore from the Agate Creek Gold Project.

The gold produced from the Queensland gold mine will be paid 60% to Laneway Resources with the remaining 40% share to Maroon Gold above 3.5 g/t gold head grade with the initial 3.5g/t extracted to be retained by the latter.

Maroon Gold has also agreed to take responsibility for the costs of the mining, transportation and processing of ore from the Agate Creek Gold Project under the supervision of Laneway Resources. The ore processing from the Agate Creek Gold Project will be done at Maroon Gold’s Black Jack Gold Processing Plant located outside the Queensland town of Charters Towers.

The Black Jack Gold Processing Plant, which will have a processing capacity of up to 340,000 tonnes per annum, is on the verge of being commissioned.

Laneway Resources chairman Stephen Bizzell said: “This Agreement represents a significant milestone for Laneway by providing the opportunity to mine and process ore from Agate Creek on a commercial scale, with minimal capital requirements thereby enabling the near term generation of significant cashflow for the Company.”

Mining at the Agate Creek Gold Project is expected to begin shortly after grant of its mining lease from Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM). The mining license, which has been applied for an area of 689.3 hectares, includes the Sherwood and Sherwood West near surface high-grade prospects and also prospective extensions to the known mineralization areas.

The Agate Creek Gold Project is located nearly 40km south of Forsayth and 60km west of Kidston.

Laneway Resources expects high grade material to be mined from shallow open cut pits of the Queensland gold mine project, which will then be transported through existing roads to a CIL processing plant.