Maroon Gold, a new private equity backed vehicle, has achieved...

Maroon Gold, a new private equity backed vehicle, has achieved its first gold pour after a $5 million project to refurbish and modernise the Blackjack processing plant at Charters Towers.The company is feeding the plant with ore from its 100 per cent-owned Far Fanning mine, where it is using Tomra X-ray sorting technology to sort stockpiled material prior to haulage and processing at the Blackjack plant.Far Fanning is part of a cluster of gold projects that the company has acquired in the Charters Towers area, providing the foundations for an initial five-year operation, according to Maroon Gold managing director Ashley Pattison.
Maroon Gold also has a strategic agreement to mine and process high-grade gold material from Laneway Resources’ Agate Creek gold project, near Kidston in North Queensland. 
Recent infill drilling of the Agate Creek project showed ‘outstanding high grade results’ that bode well for the project partners.  That operation is due to kick off upon a mining lease being granted.“All the native title agreements were resolved before Christmas, so we’re hoping that the mining lease comes through before the end of this month – which would see mining commence late February/early March,” Mr Pattison said.Stage 1 of the project would run about four months and employ about 20 people.