Hawk Resources Limited (ASX: HWK) has received a significant regulatory approval for its Olympus scandium project in Western Australia, with the state’s Minister for Aboriginal Affairs granting consent for a Mining Entry Permit.
The approval clears a major hurdle for the company’s exploration plans in the West Musgrave region.
The Mining Entry Permit is a prerequisite for exploration to begin at Olympus, and it follows Hawk’s earlier work securing an Agreement for Mineral Exploration with the Ngaanyatjarra Traditional Owners and completing a Cultural Heritage Survey over the priority area within its granted exploration licences.
The Survey report, submitted to the Ngaanyatjarra Council, has now been issued, providing the heritage clearances needed to proceed with notified on-ground activity.
With those approvals in hand, exploration work covering approximately 80 square kilometres can now proceed.
Planned activities include soil and rock sampling, geophysical surveying, and a programme of RAB drilling.
Hawk expects the programme to start in September, pending consent from the WA Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Exploration and departmental approval of a Programme of Work, which represents the final regulatory step.
The company’s initial work will focus on verification soil sampling within a 4km by 7km zone that has already returned a scandium soil anomaly of more than 500 parts per million.
If those verification results are positive, Hawk plans to follow up with detailed soil sampling to define priority targets ahead of drilling.
In the meantime, the company has engaged sampling and assaying service providers to support the upcoming programme.
Hawk Resources Managing Director Scott Caithness said the approvals represented important progress for the project.
“Obtaining the Mining Entry Permit and the Cultural Heritage Survey report marks major milestones for the Olympus scandium project,” he said.
Caithness noted that the application for ministerial consent and Programme of Work approval has been lodged with the Department of Mining, Petroleum and Exploration.
“This PoW approval is the final government consent required and as the initial planned work on the project is low impact this approval is not expected to be a drawn out process and Hawk is making preparations to commence exploration on the ground in September in anticipation of the final approvals.”
Hawk announced the option to acquire up to 80 per cent of Olympus in October 2025.
The project comprises two granted exploration licences, E69/3987 and E69/3988, spanning roughly 309 square kilometres.
Discussions with the Ngaanyatjarra Council began in late January 2026, leading to the execution of the Agreement for Mineral Exploration in May and a Cultural Heritage Survey over the priority area in mid-June.
Olympus sits in the West Musgrave region, about 285 kilometres west of Yulara and 150 kilometres northeast of Warburton, with access via a turn-off the Great Central Highway near Warakurna Roadhouse.
The area features flat terrain covered by calcrete, calcareous gravels and aeolian sands, with vegetation consisting of low open woodlands over tussock grasses.
The project was previously explored for copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum group elements and gold between 2001 and 2009 by Redstone Resources Limited, work that predated and was not compliant with JORC 2012 standards.
That historical exploration, which included geological mapping, soil and lag sampling, rock chip sampling, ground magnetics and 42 shallow RAB holes across seven lines, returned highly anomalous portable XRF scandium results.
RAB intercepts included 11 metres at 934 parts per million scandium from surface, with individual one-metre samples reaching as high as 2,164 parts per million.
Hawk has cautioned that portable XRF estimates should not be treated as a substitute for laboratory assay results, which will be needed to confirm the true widths and grades of any mineralisation.
