Alliance Resource may sell Maldon to focus on uranium Felicity Williams November 21, 2008 12:00am
A CENTRAL Victorian gold project may be sold so its owner can concentrate on developing Australa's fourth uranium mine.
BusinessDaily can reveal Melbourne-based Alliance Resource's preferred option is to offload the Maldon project - located 30km southwest of Bendigo - in return for shares in the acquiring company.
The miner is also considering further drilling in the first quarter of next year to firm up the resource ahead of a sale.
Alliance suspended work at Maldon in November to focus on getting its big Four Mile uranium joint venture in South Australia into production by January 2010.
At the time, the miner flagged a range of options at Maldon including the processing of purchased ore and custom milling for third parties at the treatment plant on site.
Alliance has spent some $15 million on underground exploration at Maldon over the past two years.
An analyst, speaking to BusinessDaily on condition of anonymity, estimated the project would require another $15 million to develop into an operating gold mine.
Maldon could be of interest to nearby Bendigo Mining or a small-cap gold producer, the analyst said, although the global credit crisis could make it difficult to find a buyer.
Alliance owns a 25 per cent stake in Four Mile - touted as the biggest uranium discovery since Kintyre in Western Australia - with US-owned Heathgate Resources holding the remaining share.
Alliance chief executive Steve Johnston told BusinessDaily the company had "outgrown" Maldon.
"The project is not being mothballed, but we have to consider our options because of the cash requirements at Four Mile," he said.
Four Mile is named for its distance from Heathgate's Beverley mine, one of three producing uranium operations in Australia.
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