PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Land Court this week ruled in favour of diversified junior Moreton Resources and its subsidiary MRV Metals, finding that the company was not liable for previous pre-existing environmental harm at the Texas silver project.
Moreton and the Department of Environment and Science will now take the next two weeks to nominate independent experts to each carry out a review and report opinions on the adjusted financial assurance required, excluding amounts relating to prior pre-existing environmental harm.
If an agreement on the financial assurance can not be reached, a further hearing will take place in the Land Court, starting August 17, to determine the appropriate amount of financial assurance.
Moreton in 2016 entered into a binding agreement to acquire a range of tenements in the Granite Belt region, which was mined by Alcyone Resources until 2014.
The company restarted steady silver production at the now renamed Granite Belt project in April of last year with a focus on the existing heap leaches, but at the end of the December quarter temporarily suspended mining and processing operations to focus on the court case.
The miner said at the time that the project remained ready for immediate restart once sufficient funding had been obtained.
Granite Belt currently had some 550 000 t of ore stocked ready for irrigation, and a further one-million tonnes of existing ore which is planned to be restocked and PH corrected to allow for further leaching operations.