Western Mining to acquire graphite tenement in SE Sulawesi
Monday, June 2 2014 - 02:50 AM WIB
ASX-listed Western Mining Network Limited (WMN) announced Monday that it has entered into a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Milestone Link Pte. Ltd, providing WMN with rights to ultimately acquire 75 percent interest in a slate tenement that contains indications of graphite in Kolaka, South East Sulawesi.
?Should future exploration be successful, it is planned that an industrial park and a graphite beneficiation plant will be constructed in the immediate area to offtake the majority of production,? WMN said in a statement.
Milestone is an investment company that has an indirect control of PT Mekongga Sejahtera through an Off-Take Agreement with call options to purchase up to 75 percent of Mekongga. This gives Milestone access to Mekongga?s 98.4ha Exploration License No.188.45/104/2014 dated March 17, 2014, expiring on March 17, 2017, issued by the Regent of Kolaka, located in Tamboli, Kolaka, South East Sulawesi.
Milestone also has indirect control of PT Eagle Rich via a 40 percent direct interest and call options to purchase a further 59 percent interest in the shares of Eagle, a company that plans to own an industrial estate area and a graphite beneficiation plant in South East Sulawesi Province, should future exploration be successful.
?Subject to ASX and any other regulatory approvals, WMN intends to acquire the shares in Milestone, giving WMN control ling interest in Mekongga and Eagle as well as the tenement. This ownership structure complies with Indonesia?s mandatory domestic owners hip requirement should Mekongga become a producing mine,? WMN said.
Access to the Tomboli tenement from Jakarta is 1420km to the east by regular flights to Makassar, which is in South Sulawesi and then by a daily flight for 266km to Pomalaa in South East Sulawesi.
The IUP is close to the coastal highway that passes through Kolaka and provides good local access. The ultimate project aim envisages quarry mine feed to a standard flotation mill with product used in factories to be established within the proposed industrial estate where road and sea access are excellent.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak