Altona Mining has announced it has received all necessary approvals from the Chinese government to fund the development of a new copper mine at its Cloncurry Project located in north-west Queensland.
The project is situated about 95km north-east of Mt Isa.It is estimated that the mine hosts nearly 1.65 million tonnes of copper and 0.41 million ounces of gold, reported Australian Mining.
Altona has signed an agreement with Sichuan Railway Investment Group (SRIG) that will allow SRIG to jointly fund the project through its Hong Kong subsidiary China Sichuan International Investment (CSII), subject to certain conditions.
CSII has received the approval from State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council of the Sichuan Province of the People’s Republic of China SASAC.
The Chairman of CSII informed Altona that it does not require the approval of the provincial government of the Sichuan Province of the People's Republic of China to proceed with the transaction.
Altona managing director Dr Alistair Cowden said: “It is great news that all Chinese approvals required to finalise this transaction have been obtained.
“I look forward to updating shareholders once we have been advised on the outcome of FIRB’s review of the transaction.”
CSII has already met Australian Treasury officials and intends to submit the application for FIRB approval soon.
Under the standard procedure, the statutory period for a decision from FIRB takes approximately 30 days and ten days for notification.
Altona said that it has obtained a majority of the necessary third party agreements required to transfer ownership of various assets to the proposed joint venture company and subsequently close the deal.
The Cloncurry Project will be 100% owned by the joint venture company-Roseby Copper. It is expected to have a mine life of 13 years.
