Miaree Project
The Miaree Project is held under a joint venture between Iron Mountain and Red River Resources Ltd (“Red River”) whereby Iron Mountain can earn up to 70% of the project. The Miaree Project is comprised of 3 exploration licences (E08/1350, E47/1309 & E09/1707) and 3 prospecting licences (P08/560-562) covering approximately 200km2. The licenses cover approximately 25km of Miaree Magnetite Trend strike that occurs within the extensive Cleverville Formation, a geological unit of banded iron formation rich in magnetite (1.6Bt Cape Lambert magnetite deposit) and only recently reported as hosting surface gold occurrences.
MIAREE GOLD PROJECT
Following reports of a substantial and ongoing electronic gold rush southwest of Karratha, a geochemical stream sediment and lag sampling program comprising of 718 samples was undertaken at the Miaree project in December 2009. Sampling locations targeted the western extension of the geological sequence that hosts the discovery area east of E47/1309. Local reports of the discovery south of Karratha suggest that in excess of 1,000oz of shallow surface gold in the form of nuggets have been recovered since December 2008. The discovery area contains no historical gold workings and was not initially regarded as prospective for gold until news of the recent discovery emerged.
The geochemical sampling program identified several zones of spotty gold anomalism with individual sample values ranging up to 0.6 g/t. The anomalous assay results definitely exhibit clustering and in more than one occasion, both fine and coarse fractions returned anomalous assay results with numerous values within the sampled area reporting several hundred times above recognised background values. This was considered encouraging given the favourable geological setting of the location at the western end of the Karratha Granodiorite. This strongly faulted area has the potential to act as a conduit for the migration of mineralised fluids and hosts several associated electromagnetic (EM) anomalies identified in an airborne survey flown by Dragon Mining in 1994.
The subsequent discovery of 28 gold nuggets (45 grams) by local metal detecting prospector Mick Napier in the northeastern corner of E47/1309 in early 2010 resulted in the reassessment of possible gold distribution within the Miaree Project (see Fig. 6). An abundance of associated iron and quartz was also reported from this location within the Sholl Shear Zone, a major transpressional geological structure in the region. This gold discovery and associated surface geology exhibit all the hallmarks of a potential regional scale mineralised system. Random grab sampling of surface iron and quartz from locations within and around the area where the nuggets were discovered was undertaken in the previous quarter.Results were encouraging without being spectacular and more work was scheduled in order to try and identify the controls on mineralisation in the area.
During the June 2010 quarter, attention was directed to the area in the northeast corner of E47/1309 given the noted abundance of quartz float and gossanous pisolitic material in the immediate area of Napier Prospect. This area also coincides with the interpreted easterly extension of the Sholl Shear Zone and thus has all the indicative requirements for the existence of a major mineralised system. A program of pisolitic soil sampling program over the Napier Prospect was planned during the quarter and executed in July 2010. Assay results are expected to be received and evaluated in the September 2010 quarter.
Figure 6 – Miaree Gold Project showing Napiers Prospect and location of recent sampling.
