"huge potential" of groundrush

cfd.net.au
au.biz.yahoo.com
29/01/10

"The managing director of a Western Australian gold miner says he hopes the company's expansion into the Northern Territory will have benefits for Alice Springs .

Tanami Gold , which operates the coyote Project"> coyote Project in Western Australia, has announced a $22 million deal to take over Newmont's Groundrush gold project"> gold project in the NT.

Tanami Gold managing director Graeme Sloan says the project should allow the company to increase its annual gold production"> gold production to more than 200,000 ounces within two years.

He says the expansion will require Tanami Gold to double its workforce to 200 staff, and he hopes many of those workers will come from central Australia .

"We work closely with the Government, we work closely with the local communities and obviously we'll be drawing a lot of our workforce from within the Northern Territory."

Mr Sloan says the company will get a better return from the Groundrush project than its former owners.

"Given the infrastructure that's there now and in the fact the very, very limited drilling below all those pits and in fact at depth, we think that the whole area has some huge potential there that we could exploit probably a little better than what Newmont could," he said.

Tanami Gold and exploration partner ABM resources will also acquire part of Newmont's exploration portfolio"> exploration portfolio in the Tanami and Barrow Creek regions."