FALCON Metals wants Victoria’s Mining Warden to take over attempts for talks with Mysia land owners blocking the company’s bid to assess potential mineral sand deposits.
The mining and exploration company has been in a standoff with owners in its Farrelly Prospect for more than 12 months.
Falcon says attempts to discuss land access had been unsuccessful.
“Falcon has lodged a submission to the Office of the Mining Warden in Victoria, who has specialist expertise in land access matters such as this, to enable discussions to occur through a facilitated process, and to increase the likelihood of arriving at an appropriate outcome for the company and the landowners,” Falcon said in its quarterly report last week.
“The (May 2024) test work results were positive, with the valuable heavy minerals shown to be clean with negligible iron staining or clay content. It also further confirmed the Farrelly high-grade zone can produce a concentrate from conventional processing methods without any notable issues. 
“Additional work is recommended including refinement of the ilmenite streams to remove minor accessory minerals such as chromite, and for additional quantitative analysis to better understand the Rare Earth Element content of the monazite stream, which was also confirmed to contain xenotime. Further drilling is required to provide sufficient sample to complete the recommended test program.”
Meanwhile, Falcon said the  drilling focus for its Pyramid Hill gold project this season had been follow-up drilling at the Loddon Vale, Eddington and Mead targets and a program of redrills at Ironbark and Pyramid Hill “where several aircore holes in previous campaigns failed to reach target depth”. 
“Falcon received final assay results for the 156 aircore holes for 18,521m at the Pyramid Hill Gold Project from the program completed on March 6. The results from the drilling have upgraded the regional scale Loddon Vale target and this area will become a priority for further testing.
“Falcon has prioritised the Loddon Vale target for additional aircore drilling next season.
“A targeting review of the remainder of the large and prospective land position that makes up the Pyramid Hill Project will be undertaken,” according to Falcon’s report.