Sunrise Resources has signed a heritage agreement with the Yugunga-Nya Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (YNPBC), removing an objection that had stalled its Bakers Gold Project in Western Australia's Murchison region for nearly two years.
The AIM-listed explorer's Prospecting Licence 51/3378 had been blocked since October 2024, when YNPBC challenged the state's use of an expedited grant procedure and triggered a referral to the National Native Title Tribunal.
Under the agreement, signed 27 July through Sunrise's wholly owned subsidiary, YNPBC withdraws its objection in exchange for a framework covering exploration cooperation and heritage protection, including survey fees and other standard workstream costs over the licence's term of up to eight years.
The licence is expected to be granted within weeks, unlocking follow-up work on a high-grade gold intercept from 2021 drilling: 2 metres grading 14.4 grams per tonne gold from 64 metres downhole, including 1 metre at 26.51 g/t, sitting beneath a 500-metre gold-in-soil anomaly that remains open in all directions.
The target lies on the less-explored eastern limb of the Meekatharra Greenstone Belt, near Great Boulder Resources' Side Well deposit and Star Minerals' Tumblegum production.
"This is significant development for the Bakers Project and concludes protracted negotiations over a nearly two-year period", said Patrick Cheetham, Sunrise's executive chairman, adding that grant of the tenement "will return us to the point where we are able to follow-up on our previous high-grade gold drilling results".
A separate agreement would be required should the licence later convert to a mining lease.
