Far East Gold now has the distinction of being the only company to be granted environmental approval for advanced exploration activities at its Woyla copper-gold project in Indonesia.

This is despite the project, which the company considers to be one of the most prospective undrilled copper-gold projects in South East Asia, being previously explored by major companies such as Barrick Gold and Newcrest.

Far East Gold (ASX:FEG) has good reason to be excited about this achievement that allows for drilling to be carried out, given that its work on top of previous exploration has extended the total strike length of known epithermal vein systems to 13,000m.

Importantly, it has also confirmed the presence of bonanza grade gold with assays of up to 119 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 1,179g/t silver within vein samples that contain ginguro bands.

Ginguro bands are an important textural feature common to high grade vein deposits such as Gosowong in Indonesia (6Moz gold at grades of 20g/t to 40g/t) and Hishikari in Japan (8Moz gold at grades of 30g/t to 40g/t).

Woyla advanced exploration

The Upaya Pengelolaan Lingkungan – Upaya Pemantauan Lingkungan (UKL-UPL) approval covers a 7,529 hectare area that includes the Anak Perak, Rek Rinti, Aloe Eumpeuk and Aloe Rek epithermal prospect areas, as well as the Lower Beurieung porphyry target.

This approval allows Far East to carry out geological mapping, rock and soil sampling, airborne magnetics, geophysics induced polarisation (IP) survey, trenching and drilling.

The company also plans to lodge its application for an Izin Persetujuan Penggunaan Kawasan Hutan (IPPKH) licence, also known as a Borrow-Use licence, for the approved area contained in the UKL-UPL.

While the company remains able to progress advanced exploration on non-forest designated land located in the northern section of the Anak Perak prospect area, the IPPKH licence will allow it to carry out drilling on forest designated land within the tenement.

Results from the recent IP survey work being undertaken by the Geological Agency of the Indonesian Government’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources will assist in the Company’s decision making to progress drilling in that part of the Anak Perak prospect or in the other prospect areas once the IPPKH has been received.

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This article was developed in collaboration with Far East Gold, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.