An hour at the Polaris website - www.polarismetals.com.au might well convince some who are wanting a cheap entry into Iron Ore with a production timeline of 2011. It seems that some important info has been overlooked to date.
ABOUT POLARIS METALS - POL
The company holds iron ore tenements spanning over 6,000 km2 across Western Australia’s premier iron regions of the Pilbara and the Yilgarn. In addition, Polaris has an experienced management team with the expertise to develop these assets through to production.
In the near term, Polaris is focused on bringing its most advanced project on stream:
the Yilgarn Project, which has a target resource potential of over 100Mt of direct shipping grade iron ore mineralisation, all in close proximity to an established rail link to Kwinana and Esperance Ports. Significant iron ore mineralisation potential has also been identified at the Weelumurra Project (350Mt target potential) and the Mayfield Prospect (100Mt target potential). Evaluation of these projects will continue as a priority in the coming year. SEE YILGARN UPDATE BELOW.
With a strategic alliance with Malaysian steel producer The Lion Group in place and strong interest from other Asian steel mills, Polaris provides investors with direct exposure to iron ore as a near term producer.
Yilgarn Iron Ore Project:
The Yilgarn Iron Ore Project (YIOP) encompasses approximately 1,000km² of mining tenements 50km north of Koolyanobbing in Western Australia, most of the tenements are held 100% by Polaris. It benefits significantly from proximity to existing rail leading to port infrastructure, which will permit a relatively rapid development for a moderate capital cost.
Recent drilling has focussed on the Carina and Chamaeleon prospects as these prospects are more likely to be developed in the near future. The 12km long corridor including these two deposits is planned to form the basis for a Stage 1 development of the project with a target potential of 30-40Mt at 58-59% Fe.
Yilgarn Iron Ore Project – Stage 1. The Carina deposit is extensively drilled and the current JORC resource stands at 28Mt at 58.6% Fe. The Chamaeleon deposit is less well defined and although no JORC compliant resource has been completed as yet for this deposit drilling to date indicates the potential for 2-5Mt of mineralisation.
A resource estimate was completed for the Carina deposit in December 2008 by resource estimation consultants Hellman and Schofield Pty Ltd:
A total of 182 holes for 22,400m of drilling was completed at Carina with analyses for only 72 holes returned at the time of resource estimation. Completion of analyses including the check sample data will enable a further resource estimate is to be completed. Polaris anticipates that this will result in an upgrade of substantial portions of the resource to an Indicated or Measured Resource classification.
An external Prefeasibility Study completed in mid 2008 indicated the viability of the project and projected strong cash flows. The study assumed as a base case mining the deposit at 2.5Mtpa, trucking to a rail heading 60km to the south and then railing to the Port of Fremantle’s Kwinana Operations south of Perth.
No further formal feasibility studies have been completed to update the existing PFS but it is likely that the capital and operating costs to either port will be similar and that the recent world economic shocks have not significantly changed the project economics.
Further work suggests that the Port of Esperance is a better option for export given the existence of a suitable berth, a larger ship capacity and more rapid land side infrastructure development.
The environmental approval process has commenced and it is anticipated that approval to mine Carina will be given in the December quarter 2009.
Polaris intends to secure further funding with the aim of completing a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) in 2009 and finalising the port and infrastructure requirements and commitments so that mining can commence in 2011. Studies relating to environmental approvals, port optimisation, metallurgical properties along with collecting and assessing other data required for the DFS.
Yilgarn Iron Ore Project Stage 2.
The potential mineralisation for the Stage 2 development exceeds 80Mt and Polaris continues to work towards gaining access for exploration and subsequently extraction. Once approval is obtained the region could potentially support production of 5-10Mtpa total for Polaris. Given the environmental and regulatory issues this process will take several years and mining is not anticipated before 2012.
PILBARA PROJECTS:
The Weelumurra Project is comprised of the Weelumurra and Caliwinga Prospects, and is 170-185km south-east of Dampier and in proximity to Fortescue Metals Group’s Solomon East prospect (stated to have an inferred resource of 0.7 billion tonnes of iron ore at 56% Fe) and the Serenity Prospect (stated to be a 1.0 billion tonne deposit at 56% Fe).
