Sipa sells and signs alliance

SIPA Resources has announced it has sold its Mount Olympus gold treatment plant in the Ashburton region of Western Australia for $2.5 million and signed an exploration alliance with Newmont Exploration, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newmont Australia. The local explorer sold the treatment plant to Austindo Resources Corporation, which plans to move the Olympus plant to Indonesia, and is required to remove all infrastructure from the site. Sipa expects the sale to save it an additional $400,000 each year in care and maintenance costs. Under the exploration agreement, Newmont will fund Sipa for a minimum of two years to manage a generative joint venture. The purpose of the joint venture will be to identify new gold projects within Australia using a combination of the companies’ geoscientific databases. Sipa will hold a 20 per cent interest in the event of a decision to mine.