The mining company from Heidelberg has cleared a major hurdle and is planning to start production in autumn
Heidelberg/Georgetown. Deutsche Rohstoff AG has taken a significant step towards its goal of mining gold in Australia. The Georgetown gold mine is to be brought into production as early as in autumn 2010. The Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) of the Australian federal state of Queensland has granted Deutsche Rohstoff Australia Pty Ltd the crucial Environmental Authority for the Georgetown gold project on 1 June 2010. It includes rights to mine gold ore in the licence areas of Red Dam and Electic Light, to dress the ore in the processing plant Georgetown, and to drain the tailings into a sedimentation pond.
Deutsche Rohstoff Australia is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Deutsche Rohstoff AG. The authority’s decision was preceded by extensive environmental studies which investigated the impacts of gold mining and processing on air, water, flora and fauna and, of course, the inhabitants of the respective areas. Australia has very strict environmental licensing requirements regarding gold production.
Deutsche Rohstoff Australia had applied for the Environmental Authority as early as in September 2009. The application already included the mining plan as well as the conceptual design of the processing plant and the sedimentation ponds. In the last couple of months, several details have been reconsidered together with the authority and the application has been modified accordingly.
Dr Titus Gebel, CEO of Deutsche Rohstoff AG, commented as follows: „By obtaining the Environmental Authority, our gold project has taken a further step towards production. We will continue to do everything to ensure the environmental sustainability of this project.”
The Georgetown project currently comes with approx. 155.000 ounces of gold and 165.000 ounces of silver, out of which 95 per cent meet the Australian JORC standard. As a start, the company is planning to mine around 2000 ounces per month from autumn 2010 on.
With Dr Frank Leschhorn and Patrick N. Scott, the management comprises two mining engineers with decades of experience in gold and coal mining. An exploration programme to expand resources is scheduled to start this month.
Deutsche Rohstoff AG (Heidelberg, Germany), listed in the Entry Standard segment of Frankfurt Stock Exchange, is establishing a new primary producer. The company’s focus is placed on gold, oil/gas and so called high tech metals such as indium, gallium, rare earth metals, cobalt. All projects are located in countries marked by political stability, the core area being Germany. The business concept is based on redeveloping deposits which have been well explored in the past. Production start is scheduled for 2010.
Please visit www.rohstoff.de for more information
Heidelberg, 07 June 2010
Contact:
Dr. Thomas Gutschlag
Deutsche Rohstoff AG
Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 26, 69117 Heidelberg
Tel: 06221/652 4730
Fax:06221/650 3940
info@rohstoff.de
www.rohstoff.de
Horst Koppelstätter
Koppelstätter Kommunikation GmbH
Friedrichstraße 2, 76530 Baden-Baden
Tel: 07221/97372 11
Fax: 07221/97372 22
hok@koppelstaetter-kommunikation.de