Greatland Gold plc has announced that it has entered into a Land Access and Mineral Exploration Agreement (LAA) with the Wakamurru Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (Wakamurru), representing the Manta Rirrtinya Native Title Holders. This agreement allows Greatland Gold to resume and expedite on-ground exploration activities at its Ernest Giles project in Western Australia. The LAA covers the majority of the land within the project area and provides for employment, training, and procurement opportunities for the benefit of Wakamurru and the Manta Rirrtinya community. The agreement also promotes heritage protection of the area. Greatland Gold's Managing Director, Shaun Day, expressed his pleasure at the completion of the agreement and stated that Ernest Giles will now resume its place as a high priority project within the company's exploration portfolio.
The Ernest Giles project is located approximately 250km northeast of Laverton and covers a folded belt of magnetic greenstone rocks. The project area is underexplored relative to the rest of the Goldfields in Western Australia. Greatland Gold's granted and under-application tenure at Ernest Giles covers more than 1,950km2, and the new application in September 2023 represents a 35% expansion to the current granted exploration licenses. The company's exploration activities will initially focus on the Meadows prospect, where previous drilling has intersected gold host rocks. The first on-ground activities under the new LAA will include two diamond holes to follow up on previous drilling results.
Greatland Gold plans to conduct airborne geophysics to better understand the geology of the entire Ernest Giles belt and prioritize targets for systematic drill testing. The company's goal is to unlock the potential of the underexplored Archean greenstone belt at Ernest Giles.