With both land ownership mapping and baseline social and environmental base line work now completed, the joint venture behind the Wapolu gold project on Fergusson Island is targeting first production in the second half of 2026.
The 50-50 joint venture between East Vision Investment Holdings (EVIH) and Adyton Resources has been advancing several enabling work streams to satisfy the requirements for both mining lease and environment permit applications. At the same time, EVIH has been undertaking metallurgical test work to inform the Wapolu flow sheet design and resource modelling.
As the joint venture’s operator, EVIH has also been meeting with a range of equipment suppliers in preparation to place orders for long lead items. It says the goal is to reach a production stage in the second of 2026.
EVIH chief executive officer Gary Wang said the operating team had been working tirelessly to restart production at the historic site.
“We have now completed 8,000m of drilling at Fergusson Island and my team has been working on meeting the requirements for our mining lease and enivironmental permit applications for the restart of the old Wapolu operation,” he said.
“We are also well advanced in completing metallurgical test work and finalising the design for the Wapolu process plant.”
Adyton chief executive officer Tim Crossley said he was confident the pieces for a 2026 first production date would fall into place. “Although it is early days, this significant progress bodes well for the joint venture’s near-term development plans for a shallow, open-pit surface mining operation at Wapolu,” he said.
East Vision bought into the Wapolu project via a binding investment and development agreement with Adyton in 2024.
