Great Western Mining Corporation PLC (AIM: GWMO) will establish a new Nevada precious metals production plant in Nevada with Muletown, an affiliate partner of Tipton Trucking.
The new venture will be called Western Milling. It will be owned jointly by both companies. The first project will be a gravity separation plant built on land leased to Muletown, near Mina.
Western Milling’s first stage will produce precious metals out of tailings and spoil heaps and stockpiles of pre-mined material.
The venture will purchase material from third parties at a second stage. There is no comparable facility in the area.
The plant is located near a major highway, Great Western, and approximately equidistant to its claims at Mineral Jackpot or the Olympic Gold project.
Brian Hall, Great Western’s chairman said: “The immediate priority was to get approval to operate the gravity processing plant which will allow us to generate revenue. The agreement we signed today gives us an experience local partner who will be crucial to the venture’s success.
“We have been working closely with Muletown’s owners for more than 10 years. Most recently, we worked on the construction of a 14-kilometre access road to Mineral Jackpot.
“Adding a production plant to our extensive exploration potential for precious metals as well as copper allows us to move ahead with confidence.”
The Mill will be constructed on approximately 20 acres (8.1 hectares) of private land to the south of Mina, Nevada, leased by Western Milling from Muletown at a nominal rent.
This location is readily accessible to vehicles, besides a major highway and roughly equidistant from Great Western’s claims at Mineral Jackpot and the Olympic Gold Project.
It will be on the site of an existing but abandoned mill, with a laydown area for raw material adjacent to the highway and a gentle slope descending vertically 15 metres on which the mill will be constructed, allowing gravity to facilitate processing.
Double-lined holding and tailings ponds will be constructed at the foot of this slope and light construction industrial buildings erected for processing the material.
Under the terms of the agreement, Muletown will provide not only the land for the mill but also virtually all the equipment required for processing mined material.
A capital expenditure budget of up to $600,000 will be phased over the three stages of construction and implemented following receipt of permits for each of the stages. The timing of receipt of permits is beyond the Company’s control but it is unlikely that major expenditure will be incurred during the remainder of this year.
Hall stated that he was very happy with the progress made in the past period.
“We set our sights on an ambitious drilling program, completed on schedule and within budget, with positive results to date.”
