Australian mining company Emerald Resources NL has signed a 15-year investment agreement and industrial mining licence with the Cambodian government for its Memot Gold Project in the eastern province of Tboung Khmum, its second project in the country.

The Perth-based company has also secured an extension of its seven-year investment agreement for the Okvau Gold Mine in neighbouring Mondulkiri province, which provides for underground operations. 

“This extension,” the company notes in a November 18 statement, “reflects the strong ongoing support from the Royal Government of Cambodia for the company’s current operations and planned expansion of mining activities.”

Under the Memot project agreement, Emerald will receive a three-year exemption from taxes and duties on imports of equipment, machinery, mining trucks, earth-moving equipment and goods, and other mine facilities.

In addition, dividends paid to foreign affiliates will not be subject to withholding taxes for five years. The royalty rate is 3% on gross sales.

Emerald, it shares, started work on the 27-square kilometre site earlier this year. Development and operation is subject to the company submitting an environmental and social impact assessment to Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment by April 30 next year.

Securing the Memot agreement and licence, adds Morgan Hart, the miner’s managing director, “marks a major milestone for the project and is a testament to the constructive and thorough collaboration we’ve had with the relevant government ministries and agencies.

“Together with the Okvau [mining investment agreement] extension which now encompasses underground mining activities, the Royal Government of Cambodia has demonstrated their strong and ongoing support for our current operations and planned expansion of mining activities.

“We look forward to providing updated timelines for the commencement of both the Memot Gold Project and Okvau Gold Mine underground expansion in the coming months.”

The Memot project, according to an Emerald presentation to investors in August, is an open pit one and has inferred resources equivalent to 1.34 million ounces of gold – a bit more than the estimated 1.30 million ounces at the Okvau mine.

Between its commissioning in 2021 and June this year, the company notes, the Okvau mine has produced 410,000 ounces.

Emerald’s biggest shareholders include New York-based investors BlackRock Group and Van Eck Associates and Boston-based investment firm State Street Corp.