JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Shares in Aim-listed junior Greatland Gold fell sharply on Monday, as the precious and base metals firm announced that Newmont Mining had pulled out of the Ernest Giles project, in Western Australia.
Greatland said in a market announcement that Newmont would not be proceeding with the Ernest Giles project at this time, as the NYSE-listed group’s “corporate priorities are largely focused on other districts”.
Newmont’s six-month right of first refusal over the project had already lapsed, the junior added.
However, Greatland stressed that it was well financed to proceed with its alternative plans to progress with an exploration programme using the deep-sensing geochemistry survey conducted by Newmont.
"The collaboration between Newmont and Greatland has successfully defined several additional gold anomalies, and we would like to thank Newmont for their efforts. The results of their survey have enhanced our understanding of the project and identified multiple new targets for further exploration work, reinforcing our view that the Ernest Giles project has the potential to host several multimillion-ounce gold deposits,” said Greatland CEO Gervaise Heddle.
Shares in Greatland plunged by as much as 70% to 0.64p following the announcement, before recouping some losses to trade at 1.03p a share by midday in London. The stock closed at 2.16p each on Friday.