JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Junior miner Kidman Resources plans to sell its Burbanks gold mine, near Coolgardie, in Western Australia, to focus its attention on the Mt Holland gold and lithium project, which it recently acquired.

Kidman has received approaches from “various parties” interested in buying the Burbanks mine and has progressed these approaches to preliminary sale discussions, the ASX-listed miner reported on Monday.

As a result, Kidman will suspend mining operations at Burbanks, which only recently resumed. The company explained that the decision was made on the basis that the near-term working capital requirements at Burbanks were no longer justified, when compared with the value that it believed could be added through directing its human resources and capital to the Mt Holland project, near Southern Cross, Western Australia.

Kidman believes it has a clear pathway to a larger production profile for gold at Mt Holland, which also has significant lithium potential.

The company intends to revise the existing gold resource at Mt Holland with a significant drilling programme, followed by an update to the feasibility study undertaken by previous operators. The company is also drilling to further test the highly prospective lithium targets within the Mt Holland tenement package and has entered into a memorandum of understanding to potentially process lithium ores at the Lake Johnston 1.5-miillion-tonne-a-year concentrator, owned by Poseidon Nickel.

Kidman in July reported high-grade drilling results at Mt Holland’s Earl Grey pegmatite, which, at the time, sent its shares surging. Earl Grey pegmatite had returned sample grades of up to 3.94% lithium oxide and highly-mineralised intersections over widths of up to 52 m. All holes had ended in mineralisation. Other strategic metals such as tantalum (up to 255 ppm tantalum pentoxide), caesium (up to 0.162% caesium oxide) and niobium (up to 359 ppm niobium pentoxide) all showed enrichment in zones within the Earl Grey pegmatite.