Development strategy

Development strategy

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has granted Federation Mining the Mining Permit for the Snowy River Mine near Reefton on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

The approval grants the right to mine gold and silver from the site for a 20 year period.

Federation Mining’s objective is to establish an underground mine at the site of the historic Blackwater mine. The mine would have a small surface footprint with an access point and infrastructure located on private land several kilometres away from the historic mine site. Tailings from the operation would be stored underground within the mine.

Resource Consents, already obtained, support Federation Mining’s current plan to construct a 3.3 kilometre twin decline (tunnel) to provide a site for underground drilling to build more geological confidence in the existing gold resource which is needed before making a decision to mine.

From here, drilling of the deeper extensions of the deposit will be completed to increase confidence in the current 700,000 ounce Mineral Resource as part of a Feasibility Study.

Subject to the results of the Feasibility Study, first gold production from the Snowy River Mine could occur by 2024.

Federation Mining has completed a project to ensure we have all the necessary permits for the Snowy River operation to establish the processing facility onsite. A series of environmental and technical investigations were commissioned and completed to support the consent applications, these were made available to key stakeholders and submitted to our regulators.

Resource consent applications were submitted to West Coast Regional Council and Buller District Council in June 2022 and following stakeholder and regulator consultation, District and Regional Consents were granted in January 2023.

Proposed Processing Plant Fast Facts

Technical Report

Blackwater mine plan 2 - Copy
Development strategy