Greatland Gold plc announced on Wednesday the commencement of the underground decline at the Havieron gold-copper project in the Paterson region of Western Australia.
Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM), Havieron’s manager, has a 40% interest in the project.
“This fast-tracked milestone is indicative of the potential scale of the deposit and the opportunity seen by our partners Newcrest,” Shaun Day, Greatland Gold’s CEO, said in a press release.
“Alongside the ongoing growth drilling, the next key milestone will see the completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study and we are on track to deliver this in the second half of 2021,” the company said.
The Paterson region hosts several large gold and/or copper deposits such as Nifty, Winu and Newcrest’s own Telfer.
In December 2020, Greatland published a maiden mineral resource for Havieron, showing the asset potentially holds 4.2 million ounces of extractable gold, with an initial inferred resource estimated at 3.4 million ounces.
Midday Wednesday, Greatland Gold’s stock was up 11% on the LSE. The company has a $1.2 billion market capitalization.