Nevada’s fast permits bring Independence for gold bolter James...

Nevada’s fast permits bring Independence for gold bolter James Bay Minerals - Barry Fitzgerald

JBY on the fast track

Now Garimpeiro does not normally give over time to complaints from the big end of town. But in this case, BHP’s permitting grievances are shared by the small end of town.Australia’s combination of legislative and regulatory hoops, along with green and indigenous legal challenges to permitting decisions, has become a headache for the entire industry.That hit home at last week’s Resources Rising Stars conference when Andrew Dornan, executive director of James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY), was singing the virtues of Nevada’s permitting system.

The company recently picked up the advanced Independence gold project in the state. It came with a foreign resource estimate of 1.18Moz of gold and 7.6Moz of silver, including a high-grade component of 796,200oz at 6.53g/t gold.It is potential company making stuff, which is why the company’s share price has more than doubled since Independence was picked up. The stock was trading at 63c in Thursday’s market for a market cap of $62 million on a capital base expanded by a recent $6m placement.

There is lots of excitement around what is ahead for at Independence. The project neighbours the Phoenix gold operations owned by a Barrick/Newmont joint venture, with Phoenix one of four operations in the broader region that make up the biggest gold mining complex in the world. Plenty to comeSo there is lots to come from Independence as James Bay gets busy with the drill bit, with copper potential also part of the story.

James Bay was the pick of the bunch for those surveyed by Garimpeiro after the conference.But back to the issue of permitting. Dornan said as far as Independence was concerned, Nevada-style permitting is a “huge value asset for the company.”Much of that has to do with the Independence ground already being covered by a plan of operations approval secured previously by Newmont.It means any project development at Independence would be treated as an amendment to the broader plan of operations approval. A short 8-12 month process would follow at a cost of no more than $100,000.“So once that project amendment is in place, we’re then approved to go and operate,” Dornan said.

It is the sort of flexibility and speed that has Nevada ranked first or second each year in the annual survey of the world’s best mining destinations by Canada’s Fraser Institute.Western Australia and the Northern Territory rank highly too in the top 10. Then follows Queensland in the top 15, South Australia top 20, NSW top 30, and surprise, surprise, Victoria limps into the top 60 behind Angola.It was ironic then that when BHP’s Slattery was lamenting Australia’s permitting shortcomings she was speaking in the Melbourne Town Hall, a grand old thing built on back of the economic boom delivered by the Victorian gold rush.