KBL Mining has secured environmental approval for its Sorby Hills silver-lead-zinc project in Western Australia.
The approval from the Western Australian Government includes several conditions, such as compliance and groundwater monitoring, specific concentrate handling and a heavy metals monitoring plan.
Construction work at the project is anticipated to commence by the middle of the year, with operations planned to start 12 months later.
Located in the north-east of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and about 50km by road from the regional centre of Kununurra, the project features five granted mining leases and one exploration licence.
A pre-feasibility study for stage one of the Sorby Hills project has already completed by KBL, based on a conventional open cut mine and sulphide flotation concentrator operation.
The project has a global resource of 16.7 million tonnes grading 4.5% lead and 52g per tonne of silver that is contained in a mineralised trend extending over a 10km strike length.
Stage one of the project development has been designed on the DE and C deposits, accounting for 1.5km of the mineralised trend or 27% of the global resource.
The deposit was discovered by Aquitane Australia Minerals in 1971 and features a series of 13 separate but adjacent carbonate-hosted, near-surface lead-silver-zinc deposits in the Burt Range formation within the Bonaparte Basin.
KBL said that the mineralisation is considered to be characteristic of Mississippi Valley-type deposits.
Exploration and drilling programmes have continued under several explorers, including a 29-hole drill programme completed by CBH in 2008.
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