Middle Island ties up big NT copper-gold ground holding

ASX-listed aspiring WA gold developer, Middle Island Resources, is on the verge of receiving government approvals for multiple exploration licences that collectively make up its big greenfields Barkly copper-gold play in the Northern Territory’s newly identified East Tennant mineral province. The NT Government has given the nod to the company’s applications for licences spanning a whopping 3,253sqkm and they can now be granted at Middle Island’s option.

Whilst the NT Government has approved the leases for formal granting, the final sign-off is contingent upon the lifting of COVID-19 travel restrictions or can simply be done at the company’s discretion.

Interestingly, Middle Island’s Barkly project properties surround or immediately adjoin exploration applications made by gold mining giant Newcrest Mining and those Barkly landholdings in the Tennant Creek area adjoin global mining giant Rio Tinto’s new tenements.

At this stage, Middle Island says it has opted not to trigger the formal granting of the licences because the Barkly copper-gold search will play second fiddle in the near term to its more advanced flagship Sandstone gold project in WA.

The company is currently progressing a feasibility study on the proposed redevelopment of the historic Sandstone mining area and hopes to have it ready by the end of the calendar year.

Last week it increased the combined gold resource at Sandstone to 18.1 million tonnes going an average 1.13 grams per tonne for 657,600 ounces of contained gold. The resource at Sandstone is based on multiple deposits in the vicinity of the old mothballed Sandstone treatment plant.

The company is looking to define enough reserves to underpin the economics of refurbishing and restarting its 600,000-tonne-per-annum plant about 12km south of the town of Sandstone, between Mount Magnet and Leinster in the East Murchison mineral field.

Middle Island Managing Director, Rick Yeates said: “We are extremely pleased to confirm that all 10 exploration licences comprising the Barkly copper-gold project in the NT are now available for grant, making Middle Island one of the first movers and largest tenement holders along the highly prospective East Tennant ridge.”

“Middle Island has secured priority areas and targets in several cases and the allocated areas also include or immediately adjoin several sites planned for much anticipated government stratigraphic basement drilling. The Barkly project represents a second string to Middle Island’s bow, with the immediate focus firmly on completing the feasibility study on the advanced Sandstone gold project in WA, with a view to recommissioning that project early in 2021.”

The newly identified East Tennant mineral province in the NT that extends east from Tennant Creek beneath the Georgina Basin across the Barkly Tableland is considered highly prospective for Tier 1 iron-oxide-copper-gold targets, according to Middle Island.

Barkly takes in or sits immediately peripheral to priority targets and corridors identified from research data generated under the collaborative Federal and State Governments’ “Exploring for the Future” initiative.

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