David Reading, chief executive officer of West Africa-focused gold play Aureus Mining (AUE), describes as ‘very significant’ the award by the Liberian authorities of a 21-km. extension to the company’s Bea Mountain mining licence to include the promising Leopard Rock target. With its flagship New Liberty gold project set to start producing by the end of May or the beginning of June, the mining licence extension, which brings in Leopard Rock along a 13-km. gold-bearing corridor, comes hard on the heels of a pronouncement from the World Health Organisation that Liberia is now free from the deadly ebola virus.