UPDATE 5pm: GBM Gold will make a formal announcement and response to the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday, following the mining regulator's decision to not renew the company's mining licences at Kangaroo Flat and Woodvale.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
John Harrison, the chief executive officer of GBM Gold, said the company found out about Earth Resources Regulation's decision after the close of business on Friday.
"The GBM board is currently considering its legal options," Mr Harrison said.
The future of the company's planned $100 million solar farm at the Woodvale evaporation ponds site, which was announced in May, remains unclear.
That plan proposes a 60-megawatt project, which the company has said will create an estimated 100 jobs.
EARLIER: The state's regulator has refused to renew a Bendigo company's mining licences at Kangaroo Flat and Woodvale out of concern it cannot fund the work.
Earth Resources Regulation requested evidence of Kralcopic's ability to finance its operations after the company last year notified the Australian Securities Exchange of its financial situation and trading of its stocks was suspended.
Read more: ASX queries GBM Gold's funds
The regulator assessed financial details provided by Kralcopic - a subsidiary of GBM Gold - after an independent analysis by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
It then declined to renew the Kralcopic's licences for its Kangaroo Flat and Woodvale sites.
"I have concluded that Kralcopic is not likely to be able to finance its operations and meet its obligations at its Bendigo sites," Earth Resources Regulation executive director Anthony Hurst said.
"Kralcopic was given every opportunity to demonstrate it has the finance, but the company has been unable to provide the necessary detail."
Mr Hurst said the company still had to rehabilitate the two sites, and the regulator would monitor this work closely.
The regulator has also assured it will regularly monitor dust issues at the Woodvale evaporation ponds.
Bonds of about $5.9 million are in place to cover this rehabilitation should Kralcopic fail to meet its obligations.
The Kangaroo Flat and Woodvale sites will also be exempted from any further mining licence applications until further consultation and consideration is given to potential future land uses.
GBM Gold agreed to purchase the Kangaroo Flat mine from Unity Mining in 2015.
The following year, chief executive officer John Harrison told the Bendigo Advertiser he did not expect mining operations to go underground until 2020, but the company would retrieve gold from the sand dams at the Kangaroo Flat mine.
Two years ago it sold the mine's processing plant for $6.2 million, with plans to use external processors in its operations.
In October last year, GBM Gold announced an investment group had committed $2.75 million to its mining operations, but that arrangement fell through.
That month, the company entered a trading halt, and trading remains suspended.
It then announced it planned to take out a $3 million loan from its largest shareholder, but that was delayed and in November last year the company said it was in discussions with another party to take out a short-term loan.
The Woodvale site contains the evaporation ponds that mining companies used to store pumped mine water, and residents have long voiced concerns about arsenic-laden dust at the site and GBM Gold's work to rehabilitate it.
GBM Gold has been contacted for comment.
Read more:
- April 2016: Mining set to resume in Bendigo
- November 2016: Arsenic dust concerns arise at Woodvale
- August 2017: GBM Gold reapplies for mining licence
- September 2017: Decision on gold mine could be six months away
- May 2018: ASX queries GBM Gold's funds
- July 2018: Toxic ponds have agricultural future: auditor
- November 2018: GBM Gold remains in trading halt as wait for loan drags on]
- December 2018: Dust concerns raised at Woodvale ponds
More to come.