Aurumin Ltd (ASX:AUN) has confirmed receipt of a non-binding and indicative offer (NBIO) from Brightstar Resources Ltd (ASX:BTR) which could facilitate a joint venture connected to the Central Sandstone Project in Western Australia’s East Murchison Mineral Field.

The project – which forms one part of Aurumin’s larger Sandstone Project – is located approximately 520 kilometres northeast of Perth and includes a non-operating 500,000 tonne per annum CIL processing plant, all associated infrastructure, operating licenses, permitted tailings storage facility and bore field, and camp facilities located on freehold title within the nearby town of Sandstone.

The territory connected to the Sandstone Project is itself promising: having produced more than 1 million ounces of gold from surface, open pit and underground operations since the 1890s, with more recent production involving Herald Resources Ltd in the 1990s and Troy Resources Ltd from 1999 to 2010.

With the latter, around 4.4 million tonnes of open pit ore was extracted and processed at an average grade of 3.6 grams per tonne, for 508,000 ounces produced until Troy’s operation was placed on care and maintenance in 2010.

Following a few years of exploration under new operator Middle Island Resources (from 2016), Sandstone was acquired by Aurumin in December 2021.

Aurumin told investors that a transaction regarding the project or a potential joint venture doe Central Sandstone was not locked-in at this stage, but that the Board of Directors had begun a process to consider the NBIO, alongside its advisors.

In response to the news, Aurumin shares went up more than 5%. At 12:52 AEDT, they were trading at 5.5 cents – a rise of 5.77% since the market opened. Brightstar shares were trading at 2.3 cents – a rise of 2.22% since the market opened.

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