’s () fully owned subsidiary Maria Resources is in a formal ballot process with Novo Resources Ltd and another private company to secure two areas prospective for conglomerate hosted gold near Marble Bar in East Pilbara, Western Australia.
The company has been notified by the Department of Mines and Petroleum that the ballots will be drawn this Friday, November 2, 2018.
Notably, the areas totalling about 40 square kilometres were mapped by the Geological Survey of Western Australia to contain Mt Roe Basalt and lower Hardey Formation conglomerates - lithologies related to conglomerate gold discoveries in other areas of the Pilbara.
A ballot process is conducted under the West Australian Mining Act when multiple applications are made for an exploration license at the same time.
The process entitles multiple parties to form an ownership sharing agreement between themselves prior to the ballot being held.
If no agreement is made, a ballot will be held whereby a mining warden, who oversees tenement matters, will use a container with a number of hollow balls similar to ping pong balls.
The names of the competing applicants are placed into the hollow balls, which go into a box.
The box is shaken in front of members of the public and the winning ball is drawn.