Great Western Mining Corporation AIM:GWMO, the AIM-listed mining company focused upon gold, silver and copper assets primarily in Nevada, has published its half-year report and unaudited condensed financial statements to 30th June 2022.
The mining company also announced the formation of Western Milling LLC – a joint venture between Great Western Mining Company and local entrepreneur Tipton Trucking company of Mina through its affiliate, Muletown Enterprises.Great Western reported a loss for 1H22 of EUR448,652 (GBP391,894) compared to a loss of EUR535,960 for 2H21. Great Western’s net assets were EUR9.2m against EUR8.7m for the corresponding period in 2021.
Shares in the company opened trading today (3rd October) at 0.12p. The company has offered a year-to-date return of -15.4%, the same as its one-year return, with shares ranging from 0.1p to 0.17p over a 52-week period. The company has a market capitalization of GBP4.1m.
Great Western used the report to update the market on its progress with the sites it is working on. The miner completed drilling programmes at Rock House and Trafalgar Hill and sampled the rocks in the tailings, spoil heaps and mineworks on its properties across Nevada.
Positive sample returns
Subsequent to the end of 1H22 Great Western received the results back from samples sent to the lab from Olympic Gold, which were received positively and confirmed the plan to extend the existing, historic Olympic Mine. With positive hits on dumps at Rock House and its other mine tailings, specifically Mineral Jackpot, the company was feeling reasonably pleased with itself.
Brian Hall, executive chairman, said in a statement: “We are very pleased with the progress made during the period. We set out our stall with an ambitious drilling programme, completed on time and on budget, with positive results received to date.”
He continued: “We have been able to highlight the strength of our portfolio, which is proving increasingly prospective, and we continue to believe that our assets underpin long-term value, while the potential for near-term revenue generation will help separate us from the crowd.”
Great Western Mining plan to develop refinery justified
The results, said the company, justify the plan to develop a refinery with Muletown as there is enough proved metal in the dump sites to go into production. Hall added that the company would also look to start processing third party tailings.
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. Great Western said the location was readily accessible to vehicles, beside 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 lay down 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.
Hall said: “The immediate priority is to secure approval to operate the plant for gravity processing which will enable us to generate revenues and the agreement we have signed […] gives us an experienced local partner who will be critical to the venture’s success. We have worked closely with the owners of Muletown for over ten years, most recently on the construction of a 14 km access road to Mineral Jackpot earlier this year. Adding a production facility to our considerable exploration potential, for both precious metals and copper, allows us to move forward with confidence.”
The company explained that permitting and processing will be in three phases:
- a simple gravity separation plant for early results;
- a flotation process and;
- a vat-contained leaching process for ultimate recoveries.
Approvals process
Engineering design, Hall said, is virtually complete and being worked on by an independent reporting engineer who will certify the plans in support of the permit applications to the state authorities. Because the mill is to be on private land, the primary permitting authority will be the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection rather than a federal agency. It is anticipated that approvals for gravity processing and flotation will be received earlier than permission for the proposed vat-leaching process, which will be subject to closer environmental scrutiny.
Under the terms of the agreement, Great Western explained, Muletown will provide not only the land for the mill but also virtually all the equipment required for processing mined material. GWMC will finance upgrading the milling equipment to operational status, purchasing any additional equipment required and the third-party costs of constructing the mill, ponds, portable buildings and necessary infrastructure.
Great Western has committed a capital expenditure budget of up to USD600,000, which will be phased over the three stages of construction and implemented following receipt of permits for each of the stages. Hall said that 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.
The miner 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 short term gold and silver deposits and long-term, world-class copper deposits.
There are numerous gold and silver prospects on the Great Western’s acreage, including extensive historic mine workings which offer the opportunity for secondary recovery. The new refinery venture will allow the company to process pre-mined material for secondary recovery of gold and silver, creating immediate cashflow and reducing the reliance on shareholder equity and bank debt in developing its ‘chunkier’ prospects into producing mines.
