Mineral Resources Map and Mines

Resource Map   

RESOURCES

Geological Provinces MapThe mining industry is a major industry in Far Northern SA and vital to the State's economic well being. The majority of the economic activity can be attributed to operations in Far Northern SA. Far Northern SA contains all five priority exploration regions in the State:

Olympic Dam - BHP Billiton - Copper/Gold/Uranium/Silver

Status: Production

Located 560 kilometres north of Adelaide, South Australia, Olympic Dam is a multi-mineral ore body. It is the world's fourth-largest remaining copper deposit and the largest uranium deposit. It also contains significant quantities of gold and silver. Olympic Dam is Australia's largest underground mine. Most of Olympic Dam's employees live in Roxby Downs township, about 16 km south of the operations. The township has a population of about 4 000.

The massive Olympic Dam orebody was discovered in 1975 and went into production in 1988. The operation comprises a fully-integrated underground mine and above-ground metallurgical complex. Olympic Dam's total mineral resource (underground) is 3,810mt, grading 1.1% copper and 0.4kg/tonne uranium oxide.

BHP Billiton is considering a further major expansion of Olympic Dam to more than double its current production capacity. Federal and South Australian Government environmental approvals would be required to permit the expansion. To seek those approvals, an Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared. If the expansion is approved by BHP-Billiton then the impact on the region and the State will be significant both economically and socially. Between 2009 and 2013, an additional 5,000 personnel may be employed  in construction and after 2013, an additional 2,500 above the current workforce (1,800) will be employed to operate the expanded mine. If the expansion goes ahead the population of Roxby Downs's will rise from 4,500 to 10,000 or more.

www.bhpbilliton.com | back to the map

Moomba - SANTOS - Natural Gas/Crude Oil/ Ethane

Status: Production

Santos has explored for oil and gas in the Cooper Basin in the north-east of South Australia since 1954 and south-west Queensland since 1962. Today the Cooper Basin development is Australia's largest onshore resource project with an active exploration program maintained.

Santos produces sales gas, ethane, crude oil and gas liquids from the basin. Sales gas and ethane are processed at the Moomba plant, with liquids transported to Port Bonython for crude oil and gas liquids processing. Moomba is located close to the original oil and gas discoveries and over time activity has fanned out from Moomba to the point where there are now fields more than 100 kilometres away.

www.santos.com  | back to the map

Prominent Hill - Oxiana - Copper/Gold

Status: Construction

Prominent Hill is located 650 kilometres north west of Adelaide, 130 kilometres north west of BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam and 130 kilometres south east of the town of Coober Pedy in the Gawler Craton mining province of South Australia.

Oxiana is an international mining and exploration company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, with a focus on Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

Oxiana owns and operates the Sepon gold and copper mines in Laos, the Golden Grove base and precious metals operation in Western Australia as well as the Prominent Hill project in Far North South Australia.

On 25 August 2006 Oxiana's Board of Directors formally approved development of the Prominent Hill copper-gold project in South Australia. The continuing strength of commodities markets together with Prominent Hill's excellent fundamentals ensure this project is financially robust and one of the world's most attractive new copper-gold mines.

The Prominent Hill copper-gold deposit was discovered in 2001 by Adelaide based Minotaur Exploration Limited and has been the stand-out green fields discovery of this decade in Australia. Oxiana acquired the Prominent Hill Project in early 2005 and completed two feasibility studies prior to approval being given to develop the mine 

The project will include development of an open-pit mine, a conventional grinding and flotation processing plant with an 8mtpa capacity, construction of a permanent village to accommodate a steady-state workforce of approximately 400 and construction of a haulage road, power line (from Roxby Downs - grid power) and bore field (12 - 18 bores drilled in the Arckaringa Basin). The workforce will be fly-in/fly-out of Adelaide and Port Augusta and drive-in/drive-out of Coober Pedy.

Open pit pre-stripping and site construction has commenced. The project remains on schedule for first commercial production of copper-gold concentrates in the third quarter of 2008.

Prominent Hill has a minimum mine life of 12 years based on the known ore resource. However the size of the Prominent Hill ore body is still yet unknown. It is currently open at east, west and at depth. Further drilling of untested extensions to the ore body is expected to result in additions to the Resource base at Prominent Hill. Good potential also exists to discover satellite deposits to Prominent Hill and other deposits in the wider tenement package.

On Wednesday 9 August 2006 Oxiana won the "Digger of the Year" Award at the annual Diggers and Dealers Conference in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Diggers and Dealers chairman Brian Hurley said Oxiana had "focused on a multiple commodity strategy and has without doubt established itself as having a significant future as a leader in the Australian resources sector".

On Tuesday 10th October Oxiana was awarded the Miner of the Year at the Excellence in Mining and Exploration Awards Dinner, in Sydney. Oxiana won the award for its contribution to the mining industry.

On 29 January Oxiana initiated a friendly takeover of Agincourt resources and its subsidiary company Nova Energy. Agincourts Martabe gold project in North Sumatra will significantly increase Oxiana's gold resources base to 16 million ounces (including silver equivalents).  Agincourt also owns the Wiluna Gold project in WA. Nova Energy holds the advanced Lake Way/Centipede uranium project, also in WA.

www.oxiana.com.au | back to the map

Challenger - Dominion Mining - Gold      

Status: Production

Dominion Mining Limited is an independent, publicly listed Australian gold producer and explorer. Dominion's shares are quoted on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX ticker "DOM") while Sponsored American Depositary Receipts representing its shares are traded in the United States of America.

Underpinned by a buoyant gold price, Dominion cemented its position as one of Australia's premier mid-tier gold companies.

Dominion was judged 'Miner of the Year' by Australia's Paydirt magazine in 2005.

Challenger was a virgin gold discovery made by Dominion in May 1995 (two years after the Company's pioneering exploration efforts in the Gawler Craton commenced). However, the project was not developed for several years as Dominion and its former joint venture partner, Resolute Ltd, focused on other projects and interests. After reaching agreement to purchase Resolute's 50% interest in December 2000, Dominion commenced a Bankable Feasibility Study on the development of an open cut mining operation. Shortly after this study was completed in September 2001, the decision was made to proceed with construction of a processing plant and infrastructure.

Open pit mining commenced in mid-2002 and plant and infrastructure was completed during the September 2002 Quarter. Plant commissioning commenced, on schedule, in late September 2002 and the first shipment of gold bullion was completed on 24 October 2002. Mining of the Stage 1 open and small adjacent cutback was completed by April 2004 to the final planned design depth of 120 metres below surface. Underground development commenced in February 2004 and full-scale underground production began in early 2005.

A total of 108,080 ounces of gold was produced for the 12 months to 30 June 2006 at an operating cash cost of $280 per ounce from processing 375,955 tonnes of ore grading 9.52 grams per tonne. Average recoveries through the Challenger plant averaged 94.3%. Throughput rates for underground ore have stabilised at between 1,000 and 1,100 tonnes per day.

Gold production from Challenger for the 2006/07 financial year is forecast to be in the order of 100,000 ounces at an average site cash operating cost of approximately $335/ounce with capital and development expenditure of around $128 per ounce.

The main Challenger project infrastructure covers an area of approximately 300 hectares and includes the processing plant, a mine village housing up to 70 personnel working a fly-in /fly-out roster, reagent and fuel storage facilities, offices, workshops, a laboratory, ancillary buildings and haul roads. Water is supplied from a process water borefield located approximately 2.5 kilometres west of Challenger. 1500kVA capacity substations are installed underground, powered from a surface power station adjacent to the processing plant, located 1km from the underground portal.

Dominion's overall strategy for Challenger is to replace reserves depleted by ongoing mine production. Dominion aims to maintain reserves of approximately 300,000 ounces, to provide at least another three years of mine life at current production levels.

A major exploration program will continue during 2007 at Challenger. The initial focus of this program is to delineate depth extensions of the M1 shoot and further test the M2 and M3 shoots in areas not currently included in the resource and reserve model. Exploration is focused on the further delineation and extension of these three principal underground ore shoots. All three ore positions remain open at depth.

www.dml.com.au | back to the map

Paralana - Petratherm - Hot Fractured Rocks Power Generation

Status: Feasibility

Petratherm was established on 24 October 2003 with the aim of obtaining tenements suitable for the production of economically viable hot rock energy, together with methodology and research data to assess the potential of such tenements. To date, three Tenements have been obtained which are characterised by:

Petratherm believes that the requirement for power from renewable energy sources will increase, and that hot rock energy is one of the few forms of renewable energy that can provide base-load power without significant impact on the environment.

Three areas will be tested. At Ferguson Hill, 110 kilometres east of Prominent Hill, the objective is to generate power capable of supplying the mine at Olympic Dam, and the potential mine at Prominent Hill, at a competitive rate. The Callabonna and Paralana licences, further south and to the east, are within 170 kilometres of the State electricity grid at Leigh Creek, providing potential to link with that grid.

To achieve these objectives the Company must successfully complete the project stages described in Section 4.1. of the prospectus. It is intended that R&D Start Grant funding and contributions of expertise by the University of Adelaide will help facilitate this.

On 1 November 2006 Petratherm is pleased to announce that this morning it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Heathgate Resources the owner of the operating Beverley Uranium Mine. The MoU relates to the supply to the mine of electricity from the Company's Paralana Geothermal Energy Project.

The signing of the MoU by Petratherm's Managing Director

On 30 January 2007 Petratherm announced A new geothermal or "hot rock" energy joint venture potentially worth tens of millions of dollars between Petratherm Limited (ASX code: PTR) and Beach Petroleum Limited (BPT). The agreement significantly underpins the commercial development of Petratherm's advanced and successful Paralana hot rock energy project just 11 kilometres from the Beverley uranium mine, and 130 kilometres east of Leigh Creek in South Australia. This could see Paralana producing Australia's first large-scale commercial geothermal electricity supplies by the end of 2009, with potential to expand to base load supply. Paralana is currently 100%-owned by Petratherm and has in its first two development stages already achieved one of the country's highest "hot rock" temperature indicators.

On 6 February 2007 Petratherm announced that it had commenced securing geothermal energy sites in Spain. Petratherm has examined the potential for both "hot rock" and conventional geothermal projects in Europe and has identified Spain as a country that meets Petratherm's strategic criteria. Through a newly formed company - Petratherm España - a process of securing key project sites is under way. Petratherm approach to "exploring for shallow hot rocks, close to market" and has initially identified four areas that meet the Company's commercial criteria. An application for Geothermal Exploration Licences (GEL's) has been made in an area 50 kilometres northeast of Madrid and in close proximity to two major high voltage transmission lines capable of carrying in excess of 1000 MW (i.e. equivalent to two third's of South Australia's average daily electricity needs). Applications for three other project sites are under way.

The new company, Petratherm España has been formed in Spain to hold the new project GELs. Petratherm España is owned 93% by Petratherm Limited and 7% by Prehenita SL - a local Spanish expert geological consulting company that has extensive knowledge of Spain's geology.

www.petratherm.com.au  | back to the map
 

Habanero - Geodynamics - Hot Fractured Rocks Power Generation

Status: Feasibility

Geodynamics Limited was registered as a public company in November 2000. The Company was formed solely to focus on developing renewable geothermal energy generation from hot dry rocks (HDR) in Australia.

Geodynamics was funded by initially raising more than $1 million dollars in seed capital in 2001.  It then secured two geothermal exploration licences in South Australia and two in New South Wales, including its outstanding world class resource in the Cooper Basin.  After successfully raising $11.5 million, Geodynamics listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 12 September 2002, and together with a $5 million R&D Start grant from AusIndustry it initially had gross funds of $16.5 million for its Stage 1 development program. The Company raised a further gross of $61.6 million to the end of 2005 to support its Stage 1 program and also fund the licence acquisition of the patented Kalina Cycle heat to power conversion cycle.

A site in one of its' South Australian licenses, 8km south of Innamincka, was selected for development of Australia's first HFR (hot fractured rock) underground heat exchanger late in 2002.

Stage 1 of the Company's Business Plan is now nearing completion.

The 2005 Reservoir Testing Program produced the first geothermal steam flows in Australia.

The initial scale-up program, known as HotRock40, will consist of drilling 7 wells to 5,000m, and an eighth well to 6,000m plus construction of a 40 MW power station with connection to the National Grid. Following this commercial demonstration it is expected that many thousands of megawatts of generation capacity can be brought on line from the Cooper Basin tenements as demand requires.

 www.geodymanics.com.au  | back to the map

Beverley - Heathgate Resources - Uranium

Status: Production

Formed in 1990, Heathgate Resources is the owner and operator of the Beverley Uranium Mine in northern South Australia. Beverley is Australia's third uranium mine. The 21,000 tonnes deposit is 300 kilometre north east of Port Augusta and just over 600 kilometres from Adelaide.

Beverley is Australia's only operating In Situ Leach mine. It is the most advanced In Situ Leach mine in the world and plays a significant role in South Australia's resource development industry, providing employment opportunities, royalty payments to the State and Aboriginal communities and fuel for greenhouse friendly power generation.

Beverley is a $100 million investment with export income of approximately $70 million per annum and rising. The company directly employs over 100 people with over 350 jobs indirectly created in the South Australian community. Royalties to State and Aboriginal communities are in the order of $3.4 million per annum along with $23 million per annum to regional and state businesses/suppliers.

With consumer demand for electricity expected to double by the middle of the 21st century, and with nuclear power plants producing no greenhouse gas emissions, the demand for nuclear energy will increase. According to the Uranium Information Centre, currently 17 percent of the world's electricity is generated by nuclear power stations.

Against this background, the Beverley uranium mine in the far north of South Australia is playing a valuable role in meeting the growing demand for uranium for nuclear fuel.

From the outset, Heathgate Resources has been committed to developing and operating Beverley as a model In Situ Leach mine. The Beverley mine has a low environmental impact while producing benefits for the world through the supply of uranium for peaceful purposes as well as for South Australia, through initial investment and, now, through long-term, full-time employment and royalty income.

www.heathgateresources.com.au  | back to the map

Honeymoon - Uranium One - Uranium

Status: Construction

The Honeymoon Uranium project comprises a number of mining tenements located on the plains between the Olary Ranges and Lake Frome, approximately 400km north-west of Adelaide and approximately 75km north-west of Broken Hill.

Naturally occurring concentrations of uranium minerals were discovered between 1969 and 1973 buried in Tertiary age river channel sediments (palaeochannels) at a number of locations in the project area, including Honeymoon, East Kalkaroo, Yarramba and Goulds Dam.  The uranium deposits occur at a depth of 100 - 120m in the basal sands.

On 29 August 2006 the Board of Directors approved the development of the Honeymoon In-Situ Leach (ISL) Uranium Project. The Board's decision follows a detailed review of a feasibility study on the Honeymoon Project prepared by Mayfield Engineering Pty Ltd. and Aker Kvaerner Australia and others and a revised mineral resource estimate for the Honeymoon Project completed by K.F. Bampton MSc, MAusIMM, MAIG of Ore Reserve Evaluation Services (Adelaide). The Mayfield feasibility study examined the development of a commercial uranium ISL project with an annual production capacity of 400 tonnes (880,000 lbs) of U3O8and a total project life of between 6 - 7 years. Implementation of the Project has already been initiated. Discussions are underway with potential suppliers for long-lead items and infrastructure development. Project commissioning is expected by January 2008.

In addition to the Honeymoon mine, Uranium One is proceeding with drilling in the Goulds Dam region, a 1,900 square kilometre area of South Australia located some 75 kilometres from Honeymoon, which is under-explored and is considered prospective for additional mineralization in its palaeochannels.

http://www.uranium1.com | back to the map

Cairn Hill - Goldstream Mining - Magnetite/Copper/Gold

Status: Feasibility

The Mt Woods Project comprises 7 granted tenements covering an area of 5,000km2, located approximately 50 km south east of Coober Pedy.

The company has been exploring the South Australian Gawler Craton province for the past ten years.  In the year 2000, focus shifted to the Coober Pedy region with the acquisition of approximately 50% of the highly prospective Mt Woods Inlier. The province contains numerous gravity and magnetic features and is characterised by widespread Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold (IOCG) style alteration and mineralisation.

In 2001 the Inlier's potential was highlighted by the discovery of the Prominent Hill deposit on adjacent tenements. 

Goldstream entered into a Joint Venture in 2002 with Anglo American.  Anglo completed extensive and detailed ground gravity surveys, alteration mapping, historic data review and established a new geological framework.  A number of targets meeting Anglo's commodity and size threshold were selected and drill tested before the project was returned to Goldstream in early 2004.

A reconnaissance hole drilled by Anglo located on a 20km long gravity feature intersected interesting platinum values.  Hole ARC025 intersected increasing platinum at the end of the hole, with the bottom 4 metres assaying 0.3 g/t Pt (148-152m) with the bottom metre sample assaying 0.44 g/t Pt.  The zone is accompanied by anomalous copper and nickel.

In May 2006 reconnaissance RAB drilling, as part of the Black Hills (approx. 7 km south of Cairn Hill) programme, intersected a zone of copper-gold mineralisation, including 22m @ 0.3%Cu and 0.1g/t Au in hole MWRAB081. The anomalous zone, which is open to the east and west, is approximately 400m wide.

Estimated mineralisationin of the Cairn Hill tenement is in the order of 16mt @ 47.2% Fe, 0.43% Cu & 0.17g/t Au with ±10mt in an open pit.

Goldstream's feasibility study for the Cairn Hill mine commenced in June 2006 and is now due for completion in April 2007.

www.goldstreammining.com.au | back to the map

Peculiar Knob - Western Plains Resources - Iron Ore

Status: Feasibility

The feasibility study for the development of the Company's Peculiar Knob direct shipping iron ore (DSO) project in South Australia has commenced. The study, with a budget of some $1.6 million, is scheduled to be completed by the end of June 2007 with the grant of the mining lease expected later this year. It is expected that production will commence in February 2008.

Peculiar Knob is a high grade haematite ore body with very low impurities. A resource definition drilling program commenced at Peculiar Knob on 15 January 2007. The objective of 7,900 is to upgrade the status of the existing inferred mineral resource estimate of 14 million tonnes averaging 63.2% iron to the measured and indicated status, to explore the initial tonnage at depth and to obtain core samples for metallurgical and geotechnical testing. It is expected that the quality of the resource estimate will be significantly elevated at the conclusion of the drilling program. The revised resource estimate is due for release in March 07.

All of the key consulting groups have been engaged, and fieldwork has started. Disciplines to be covered in the study include resource and reserve estimates, mine scheduling and design, environmental studies and hydrology, metallurgy and ore characterisation test work, engineering and infrastructure, and logistics.

The Company has commenced discussions with rail freight and port operators and the regulatory authorities, and expects to advance these negotiations in the New Year. Discussions and negotiations with potential contract mining companies, crushing and screening operators, and trucking contractors will follow.

WPG will commence a drilling program at its nearby Hawks Nest iron ore project area after the Peculiar Knob drilling program has been completed. Hawks Nest contains the Buzzard haematite deposit with a total measured and indicated resource of 6.7 million tonnes at an average grade of 60% iron, together with a number of magnetite deposits, the largest of which is Kestrel with a total measured, indicated and inferred resource estimate of 220 million tonnes at an average grade of 36% iron.

The Company's review of previous drilling suggests that there is good potential at Hawks Nest to outline additional high grade deposits similar to Buzzard, and the focus of the forthcoming drilling program will be to explore for these types of deposits in the Kestrel, Kite, Eagle and other prospects. The budget for this program is some $0.4 million, and is in addition to the Peculiar Knob feasibility study budget.

http://www.westernplainsgold.com.au   | back to the map

Helix Resources - Tunkillia - Gold

Status: High Potential

The Lake Everard Gold Project is located 700 kilometres north west of Adelaide in South Australia's Gawler Craton. The project comprises 3,250 square kilometres of tenements including the Lake Everard tenement, EL2697, which contains the Tunkillia gold deposit.

Helix acquired the project in 1996 to explore for gold in Mesoproterozoic geological settings in the Gawler Craton.

The Tunkillia discovery, which was announced in late 1996, was one of the first gold discoveries in the Gawler Craton and the 20 square kilometre Tunkillia Prospect remains the largest robust gold-in-calcrete anomaly in the region. Subsequent exploration was carried out in joint venture, initially with Acacia Resources Limited and later with AngloGold Limited following its takeover of Acacia.

Helix committed to a $1.5 million drilling program commencing in June 2003. In parallel with metallurgical testwork, geotechnical studies and hydrological studies.

2006 saw Helix go in to a joint venture arrangement with Minotaur. In October 2006 Helix Resources announced to the ASX the results from the recent 2,800m slim-line RC drilling program at the Tunkillia Project undertaken by Minotaur Exploration Ltd (Minotaur).

The program was designed specifically to test the up-dip extensions of bedrock mineralisation into the oxide zone, which was not well represented in previous drilling. The results highlighted what appears to be a coherent oxide zone above the known bedrock mineralisation including 10m @ 4.2g/t Au from 57m (to end of hole) from LEAC141 and 8m @ 4.8g/t Au from 50m in LEAC159.

More significantly, the drilling shows potential for additional shallow oxide resource with drilling in the central zone footwall position intersecting gold mineralisation peripheral to known mineralisation including 5m @ 12.1g/t Au from 48m from LEAC146, and 12m @ 15.8g/t Au from 52m (to end of hole), from LEAC163. Much of this mineralisation remains open along strike and has the potential to significantly enhance the shallow oxide gold resource at Tunkillia.

Minotaur has collected samples for metallurgical testing and results from this drilling are being used to refine and enhance the current resource model.

http://www.helix.net.au   | back to the map

Havilah Resources - Kalkaroo - Copper/Gold

Status: Feasibility

The Kalkaroo area, 100km west of Broken Hill, has been the subject of considerable exploration by a number of major exploration groups since 1983 including BHP, Placer, Newcrest Mining and MIM Exploration. Several types of geophysical surveys and more than 45,000 metres of drilling of various types have been completed.

At the Kalkaroo copper project Havilah's 3D computer modelling of earlier company drilling data identified a potentially large copper resource target based on a handful of previously unrecognised successful drillholes. Between late July and December 2004 Havilah systematically drill tested its interpreted copper resource envelope on twenty-one 100m spaced drill traverses over a strike length of 2000 metres and has achieved ore grade intersections on every section line. The drilling has not yet determined the limits of the mineralisation, which currently remains open along strike in both directions and down dip.

On February 1 2007 Havilah updated its existing resource model at Kalkaroo to incorporate the 2006 drilling results from West Kalkaroo. This has resulted in a 28% increase in the total resource, from 85 million tonnes (measured) to 108 million tonnes (measured and indicated) of combined copper, gold and molybdenum mineralisation. The new West Kalkaroo component comprises an indicated resource of 23 million tonnes of 0.58 g/t Au and 0.33% Cu.

Using a A$20 per tonne ore value cutoff, this resource translates to 85 million mineable tonnes at a grade of 0.51 g/t Au and 0.45% Cu within an optimized open pit model. This is a conservative estimate because all the internal lower grade material currently assigned to waste would be mined and could possibly be processed at current metal prices. In gold terms, Kalkaroo has the equivalent of over 6 million ounces.

The commencement of a feasibility study took place at the beginning of February 2007 which the Company has assigned $1.0 million this year.

Kalkaroo has several appealing features. Its location puts it close to the Barrier Highway and rail access to both Adelaide and Broken Hill. In addition to close infrastructure more than 60% of the currently defined resource is oxide ore, with large amounts of native copper. This means it can be comparatively cheaply processed. The deposit also lends itself to inexpensive mining methods; particularly as the top 50 metres of the ore body is soft, free digging material that does not need blasting.

www.havilah-resources.com.au  | back to the map

White Dam - Exco Resources - Gold

Stage: Feasibility 

The White Dam gold deposit was discovered by MIM in the late 1990's and acquired by Polymetals Mining Services Pty Ltd in 2001. Exco initially acquired a 60% interest in the project from Polymetals in 2003/2004 and has now moved to 100% ownership by purchasing Polymetals remaining 40% interest.

The project resource is currently stated at 7.3Mt at 1.09g/t for a total of 257,400 ounces of contained gold. Exco's intention is to develop an open pit mining operation at White Dam to mine 4.3Mt of oxide resources at 1.25g/t to produce a total of 115,000 ounces of gold at a rate of 50,000 ounces per annum. Gold will be recovered from the ore by dump and heap leaching.

During the year the Company's focus at White Dam was on advancing mining and metallurgical planning for the project, resolving native title agreements, establishing the location of a water source suitable for the project needs and undertaking further exploration work on surrounding areas.

Process metallurgical consultants Independent Metallurgical Operations were retained by the Company to design and cost the leaching and gold winning process. In August 2006 the Company completed the acquisition of a 2 Mt/a heap leach process plant. Inspections have demonstrated that the plant is in excellent condition and subject to minor refurbishment and modification this plant is ideally suited for the White Dam project. The acquisition of this plant is anticipated to yield significant cost and time savings for the project.

On 21 July 2006 a mining native title agreement was reached with the Adnyamathanha people. The department of Primary Industries and Resources South Australia confirmed on 1 September 2006 that the native agreement had been registered in accordance with the provisions of the Mining Act.

Experienced consultants have been retained to assist the Company to locate a suitable water source for the project. Following a series of desk top and field based geophysical studies a water exploration programme has been commenced principally targeting tertiary

paleochannels approximately 40 kilometres east of the project area. Further evaluation of known water sources closer to the proposed mining area will also be undertaken as part of this programme.

During 2006 drilling was undertaken to complete step out resources to the east of the existing White Dam deposit and to follow up mineralisation identified at the Vertigo prospect located 800 metres south west of White Dam. Both programmes were successful with White Dam mineralisation extended to the east and significant new high grade mineralisation identified at shallow depths at Vertigo.

http://www.excoresources.com.au  | back to the map