Aussie firm signs agreement to develop C.Kalimantan gold project

Perth-based explorer Ethan Minerals Limited announced on Tuesday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indonesian company, PT AL Maruf (AM) to develop the Gold Tiger Mining Concession Area (GTMCA) in Central Kalimantan.

The MOU establishes Ethan?s exclusive right to develop, mine, process, transport and sell gold ore products from the Kapuas Project within the GTMCA, the company said.

Ethan Minerals has paid a refundable deposit of US$500,000, receipt of which has been formally acknowledged to meet the terms of the MoU.

It will be refunded if the information regarding the deposit as provided by the vendor does not correlate with the information as determined in the due diligence exercise, which will take two months to be completed.

The outlined basic terms of the agreement stipulate that PT. AM will be paid a royalty of 10 per cent of the net sales revenue from gold sales pertaining to the GTMCA. A full form of agreement is expected to be drafted and executed in due course.

PT AM has recently been granted a gold ore mining license for the area by the Regent of Kapuas regency, Central Kalimantan. The mining license covers an area of 125,000 hectares. An initial 25,000 hectares has already been awarded and a further 100,000 hectares under application, it added.

Ethan will be responsible for providing the expertise and support needed in the construction of the mining facilities, mining, exploitation and operation of the GTMCA Project.

Ethan Minerals, which has an experience of 30 years in mining operations in Australia and Indonesia, stated that it will continue to evaluate a number of other attractive mining projects in Indonesia , including a number of iron sands and chrome sands projects. (denny)