Emergency crews were called to the Ballarat gold mine in Mount Clear, about 100 km west of Melbourne.

Bouna Sylla is former head of the state company that managed infrastructure projects on the giant Simandou iron ore project.

The Mt Todd project is considered to be one of Australia's largest undeveloped gold ventures.

The initial agreement is for New Gold to purchase up to 350,000 tonnes of ore mined at Bralorne and process it at their mill located at the New Afton mine.

Indigenous groups in British Columbia, Montana and Idaho lobbied for intervention by both federal governments.

"Industry and stakeholders are not being engaged in the manner and weight and importance that we should be,” AME president said.

Perseus and Silvercorp are vying for OreCorp’s Nyanzaga gold project in Tanzania, slated to produce 242,000 oz./year over its first decade.