WA land sale puts sharper Black Dragon focus on Spanish gold

Black Dragon Gold has narrowed its focus on the development of its Salave project in northern Spain after selling off a $150,000, two-tenement package from its Padbury Gold play near Meekatharra in Western Australia.

It comes just a week after the company was heralding a “significant step forward” as local Spanish authorities agreed to consider rezoning the Salave land as an industrial area to allow mining activities.

Management says the two Padbury Gold exploration licences it has sold to Parbo Resources were part of a package of ground held by Marlee Gold, which Black Dragon acquired in mid-2022.

But the company will remain exposed to exploration potential in the WA region, deciding to keep its 115-square-kilometre Ivan Well licence further inland towards the town of Wiluna. Management says it opted to retain the underexplored Ivan Well ground to ensure it retains a prospective footprint in what it sees as “one of the premier goldfields in WA” and where it believes there are good early-stage gold exploration possibilities.

As part of our strategic review of our WA assets, Black Dragon’s Board resolved to partially divest our WA tenement package to focus on immediate activity at our flagship 1.5Moz plus Salave Gold Project in Spain, which is currently undergoing land rezoning and environmental permitting approvals.

The company’s 100 per cent-owned Salave project in northern Spain’s Asturias province is one of the biggest undeveloped gold projects in Europe.

The project contains a combined inferred, indicated and measured resource of 11.33 million tonnes at 4.27 grams per tonne gold for a handsome 1.56 million ounces of the precious yellow metal. Gold prices are continuing a seemingly inexorable rush to the stratosphere, recently testing a new high of US$2381.90 ($AU3681.25) per ounce.

Today’s gold price in Australia is still sitting at about $3540 an ounce.

Black Dragon says Spain’s local Tapia de Casariego Town Council is now assessing the company’s resubmitted application to change Salave’s land-use designation from agricultural to industrial to allow mining. With the permitting process officially underway, management says it will focus on advancing its technical studies to incorporate the requirements of the environmental impact assessment. It will also update the economic modelling of its project, which is bound to have changed positively since its previous reviews.

The new flurry of activity on the project looks like Black Dragon might soon be able to start breathing fire into its feed conveyors and some of that refreshingly cold air in the stratosphere. The view from up there should be good, too.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au