Exploration firm Rambler Metals and Mining Canada has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Maritime Resources to evaluate the former’s Nugget Pond gold plant. The Nugget Pond plant is located in the Baie Verte peninsula in northeastern Newfoundland, Canada.
The LoI signed with Maritime includes an exclusivity period of 12 months to evaluate Rambler’s Nugget Pond gold plant. Maritime Resources president and CEO Garett Macdonald said: “This agreement provides Maritime with a twelve-month exclusive period to evaluate the Nugget Pond Gold Plant in further detail for potential future processing of Hammerdown mineralisation.
“The gold circuit is currently idle and was operated in the past by Richmont Mines, processing feed from the former Nugget Pond and Hammerdown gold mines with gold recoveries of over 95%.”
The gold plant is a small section of the total Nugget Pond concentrator plant. It is not used to process ore by Rambler. According to the companies, the LoI is to explore processing feed from the Maritime’s Hammerdown gold project at the plant and to complete a feasibility study with the option to negotiate a purchase agreement during that time.
Hammerdown is an underground mining project located in the Newfoundland & Labrador province of Canada.
Rambler president and CEO Andre Booyzen said: “The gold circuit of our concentrator plant has remained unutilised for some time, and apart from the addition of a grinding circuit, will not require significant further investment.
“Our agreement with Maritime will not distract us from our focus on continuing to develop our operations to 1,500tpd of ore processed at >2% Cu. We look forward to the start of a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Maritime’s team.”