The Queensland government of Australia approved a 25-year mining lease for the Mt Carlton gold-silver-copper project of Evolution Mining.

The miner awarded the construction management of the project to Brisbane-based Larpro Projects, which had started resourcing it. Evolution said detailed engineering and procurement for the Mt Carlton venture is almost complete, construction tenders are ahead with bulk earthworks, permanent accommodation camp, pre-fabricated buildings, concrete civil works and steel fabrication packages have been awarded.

With these developments, Larpro will begin finalisation of access roads, creek crossings and power-line access road upgrades, and communication lines, construction of small water control dams, plant site earth works and SAG mill delivery to site.

Evolution runs four gold mines in Australia, the Cracow, Edna May, Mt Rawdon and Pajingo. The company was formed from the merger of Catalpa Resources and Conquest Mining and the purchase of Newcrest Mining interests in the Cracow and Mt Rawdon gold mines in Queensland.

When the company was still Catalpa, it reported in its September quarterly report that its gold production was 25,035 ounces at a cash cost of $1,002 (Austrlian) per ounce, while its cash and gold stock, excluding gold-in-circuit, reached $25.2 million.

For the same quarter, sold sales was 26,602 ounces at an average gold price of A$1,602 per ounce which helped reduce the miner's total bank debt by A$6 million to A$41.5 million.

Jake Klein, executive chairman of Evolution, said once Mt Carlton becomes operational it is expected to contribute strong earnings growth to Evolution through its low-cost production.

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