PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Vango Mining is advancing preparations and discussions to fast-track its Plutonic Dome project, in Western Australia, despite a dispute with Canadian miner Superior Gold.
Vango on Tuesday told shareholders that the company currently had a number of drilling rigs on site, targeting the Cinnamon, Trident and Trident West deposits.
The drilling programme is scheduled to continue through the current quarter, with results to follow thereafter.
Vango is also advancing the design, engineering and feasibility works for the construction and operation of a standalone gold processing plant, and has now entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China ZhengHe Industrials to supply the ASX-listed company with a one-stop-shop solution for all its mining and processing plant technical support, equipment, supply, purchasing and financial leasing.
A formal cooperation agreement will likely be signed during the first quarter of 2019, Vango executive chairperson Bruce McInnes said on Tuesday.
The announcement of the MoU comes after TSX-V-listed Superior Gold launched legal proceedings against Vango and its subsidiary Dampier Plutonic, over tenements north-east of the Plutonic gold mine.
Superior Gold, through its own subsidiary Billabong Gold, is claiming that it holds rights of first refusal under a 2014 ore treatment agreement over tenements within Vango’s Plutonic Dome project, and that these rights were breached during Vango and DPPL transactions in 2016 and 2017.
Vango told shareholders that Billabong’s claims were speculative and without merit, noting that the ore treatment agreement had been terminated more than 12 months ago.