Raleigh Finlayson is especially bullish on plans for his next big mine now it won’t require environmental scrutiny from the State, but he needs to remove kilometres of track from a Leonora rail line to get at it.
The WA mining businessman was at the Macquarie Australia Conference on Tuesday talking up Genesis Minerals’ ambition of becoming a 400,000 ounce-a-year gold producer via the menagerie of mines and mills he’s been buying up in the region over the past two years.
Genesis’ anchor operation is the famed WA gold mine Gwalia. But it’s the undeveloped deposit of Tower Hill that will be key to unlocking further tonnage for the company.
A presentation deck posted to the market on Monday revealed Tower Hill did not require assessment by the Environmental Protection Authority. It’s understood the project was referred to the EPA when it was owned by St Barbara and the EPA decided not to assess it at the time.
Tower Hill would likely still need the usual approvals required for mining from departments of mining and water.
Mr Finlayson said not needing EPA assessment was a key development for the project’s timeline, but said later when questioned by an analyst that it was removing a rail line – that runs over the top of the would-be open-pit mine – would be the biggest obstacle.
“The longest lead item remains relocation of the rail line,” he said.
The line is owned on behalf of the State Government by Arc Infrastructure, which confirmed to The West Australian that Aurizon and Watco operate services on behalf of BHP Nickel West, Minara and Lynas.
“Arc Infrastructure is the manager of the State’s rail freight network, which we operate and maintain under a lease with the WA State Government. The rail network includes the line between Kalgoorlie and Leonora,” a spokeswoman said.
“In the case of proposed relocation, Arc would work closely with the state, as ultimate owners of the rail network, to review any proposal, with a particular focus on ensuring there is no impact to network operations or to our customers.”
Genesis told the market “alignment with stakeholders on relocation of facilities in rail corridor (are) well progressed”.
Mr Finlayson was also upbeat about the project following a site visit from Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti.
“(It’s) all about timing, right place right time, obviously (with) nickel coming off, BHP uncertainty, this is the only other key development project in the northern Goldfields and we’re right adjacent to BHP’s Nickel West operation so having another asset coming on stream quickly is the key priority for the State,” he said.
“So you can imagine the State, who owns this rail line, is very keen to see this happen quicker.”
Other key stakeholders that will need to get on board are the local Traditional Owners, the Darlot. Mr Finlayson said he was meeting with them every month.
He also suggested there was also positive feedback from the Leonora community.
“We had a community briefing, we had 75 people in the room. The previous one that was done the year prior had 8,” he said.
“You can imagine a community like Leonora is really bullish on it.”