The Commonwealth mine, nearly half an hour from Wellington, was one of the largest mineral producers in Australia in the early 1900s. 

Impact Minerals director Dr Mike Jones said the company had after decided to move into the next phase of the project.

“At the recent AGM and board meeting, it was resolved that we would continue to the next phase of development at the Commonwealth site and begin drilling,” said Mr Jones.

Dr Jones said the company had some very exciting results to date at the project, reporting discoveries of significant intercepts of high grade gold and very high grade silver.

“All the signs are positive and point towards the Commonwealth Project potentially being the discovery we’ve been waiting for.

“Our work over the past two years has shown that the ground we are concentrating on around Silica Hill contains extensive mineralisation.

“The next logical step for us is to find out how big the deposit could be.”

“Last month we tripled the amount of ground around the project and applied for three more exploration licences.”

Dr Jones said if the company did find what they were looking for, they would love to set up an operations base in Wellington.  

“It will take about two years to get the full scope of the project, and if it is found to be economically feasible it would take another one-to-two years for all of the mining approvals,” Dr Jones said.  

A team of eight drillers are currently rotating shifts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We’re working really hard to get as much drilling done as we can before Christmas,” Dr Jones said. 

“This is a very exciting time for us but we’re also conscious that there is a lot of work still to do,” Dr Jones said.

Impact Minerals also has projects near Broken Hill and Clermont in Queensland.