(Alliance News) -Â Goldstone Resources Ltd on Friday said the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency has granted the environmental permit for the company's Homase South Pit within the AKHM project.
Shares in Goldstone were up 21% at 12.60 pence in London on Friday.
The permit is key to allowing the company to proceed towards construction of the project.
"This is a major achievement in the development of the AKHM project, which will be the company's first mine in its highly prospective 83.24km total licence area," said Goldstone.
Now it has secured the environmental permit, the firm expects mining and construction operations at the project to commence "imminently", with an estimated timeline for the first gold pour being within two months.
The environmental permit, along with the 10-year mining lease which received parliamentary ratification in December, are a prerequisite for procedural operational permits which are expected to be granted on a "timely basis".
Goldstone will make an application for the environmental permit to be expanded to also cover the whole of the company's expanded mining lease for AKHM, including the Homase North and Homase Central pits.
"We have been eagerly awaiting receipt of this permit so that we can start construction and mining. The permitting process has taken approximately six months longer than what we initially anticipated, but we are delighted to now be in a position to commence the next stage of operations at the AKHM project," said Goldstone Chief Executive Emma Priestley.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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Goldstone Resources (GRL)