Far East Gold Ltd (ASX:FEG) earlier this week announced that it had secured PIPPIB approval for 9,000 hectares at its Idenburg project in Indonesia.
The company said the approval reclassifies the area from forestry to production forestry, allowing it to proceed with environmental permitting, operational licensing and mine development. Far East Gold told investors the move “removes all the major regulatory barriers” for the project.
Shane Menere, Managing Director and CEO, said the development provides “regulatory certainty and a clear development pathway”. The company said the process at Idenburg follows a similar model to that used at its Woyla project, where it was the first company to successfully drill in 25 years.
Far East Gold highlighted that the approval transforms Idenburg from an exploration asset into a project ready for development.
Alongside this progress, the company is continuing drilling at both North Anak Perak and Anak Perak. It said North Anak Perak has already returned high-grade intercepts and that more results are expected.
Far East Gold noted that nearly 300,000 ounces of its total 540,000-ounce resource are located in the Anak Perak area. It is currently gathering new assay data and said a continued flow of news is expected in the near term.
Proactive:
Far East Gold cleared a major hurdle in Indonesia. They've now secured PIPPIB approval over 9,000 hectares of the Idenburg project. What does that really mean? All the details, of course, are with the company's Managing Director and CEO, Shane Menere, live out of Jakarta. Shane, it's always good to see you. How are you?
Shane Menere:
I'm very well. Good to see you too.
Proactive:
Shane, this is a major stepping stone. Congratulations on this approval. Can you explain to investors what this really means for Far East Gold and the Idenburg project?
Shane Menere:
Yeah, this is a huge one for us. The PIPPIB, as it's called, covers about 9,000 hectares of our flagship Idenburg project. What it essentially does is reclassify that forestry into production forestry. That means we can now move ahead with environmental permitting, operational licensing, and eventually mine development. So, in simple terms, this removes all the major regulatory barriers and opens the door for something much bigger.
Proactive:
So you’ve basically now got the official green light from the Indonesian government. But Shane, why is this reclassification so important for the project?
Shane Menere:
It gives us regulatory certainty and a clear development pathway. We’ve actually done this before with Woyla. If anybody recalls, we were the first company successfully able to get in there and drill in the 25 years of its history. We're replicating that model at Idenburg. So now we can move seamlessly into our environmental process and so forth. That protects the project, essentially de-risks it, and transforms Idenburg from an exploration story into a project ready for growth.
Proactive:
Shane, you were with me last week and we spoke about the high-grade gold you had intercepted at North Bermol. That certainly got the market excited, and your share price shot up drastically on the news. What’s next for Idenburg now that this approval is locked in?
Shane Menere:
We’re continuing more drilling at North Anak Perak. We’re seeing more and more very interesting things there, so there will be a steady news flow and some more positive results coming out. We’re also drilling currently at Sua. That whole area has approximately just under 300,000 ounces of our total 540,000-ounce resource. We're building that out. We're seeing some very interesting things there. I’ll be gathering those assays very soon, packaging them up, and getting them out. The news flow is going to be continued and positive from this point. It’s quite exciting at this stage.
Proactive:
We’ll look forward to having some of those assay results from Anak Perak in the coming days or weeks. We look forward to updating the market with you. This was Far East Gold’s Managing Director and CEO, Shane Menere, live out of Jakarta. Always good to see you.
Shane Menere:
Good to see you. Thank you.