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(Sharecast News) - Miner and developer Greatland Gold said it had retained 30% ownership of the Havieron joint venture on Friday, after Newcrest chose not to exercise its option to acquire an additional 5% interest from Greatland for the independently-assessed $60m price tag.
The AIM-traded firm said the outcome would deliver "substantial" medium-to-long term value.
It added that Newcrest had released an updated mineral resource for Havieron, which was within 1% of the total gold metal content and within 3% total copper metal content of Greatland's previously-announced updated mineral resource.
Newcrest's updated resource defined a total of 85 million tonnes at two grams of gold per tonne and 0.26% copper, for a total of 5.5 million ounces of gold and 223,000 tonnes of copper.
The updated Newcrest resource was based on a 16 November drilling cut-off date, similar to the Greatland updated resource announced on 3 March, which was based on a 2 December drilling cut-off date.
Greatland also reported that the drill programme at Havieron was progressing "at pace", with up to seven drill rigs in operation.
The growth drilling programme was continuing to identify and expand high-grade extensions to the mineralisation in the Eastern Breccia, South East Crescent Zone and Northern Breccia.
Additionally, the development of the exploration decline had improved, with advancement rates accelerating during the June quarter, and improvements expected to continue.
"We are simply delighted that Greatland will retain its 30% interest in Havieron - this was the best possible outcome for the company and its shareholders which delivers substantial medium to long term value," said managing director Shaun Day.
"Greatland had previously offered Newcrest significantly higher value to acquire a 5% stake from Newcrest which, in the opinion of the directors, still presented a financially compelling outcome to Greatland shareholders.
"Accordingly, today's outcome is tremendous, particularly in the context of the ongoing potential of Havieron."
Day said the outcome also concluded the joint venture process for Newcrest's 5% option, and aligned both parties to focus on developing Havieron and work towards first production without the distraction of the process.
"We respect the Newcrest decision, which as a global major with over 35 years of experience in the Paterson, is an excellent joint venture partner and provides Havieron the benefit of leveraging the existing infrastructure just down the road at Telfer.
"We welcome Newcrest's update to the Havieron JORC resource today, which delivers around a 51% increase on their previous update.
"This update, with a December 2021 drill cut-off, is within around 1% for total gold metal content of Greatland's independent update released on 3 March 2022."
The validation was described by Shaun Day as a "great credit" to the quality of the company's technical team, and its ability to deliver within compressed timeframes.
"An additional almost nine months has passed since the cut-off date, with drilling results over the course of 2022 being outstanding.
"Accordingly, there remains exceptional potential for ongoing growth.
"With excellent progress at Havieron continuing and the publication of the Feasibility Study on track for the December quarter, we are confident that Havieron represents a world-class, low-cost development expected to be fast-tracked to commercial production."
At 1127 BST, shares in Greatland Gold were down 3.03% at 10.57p.
Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.
