09 April 2008 - 3:53PM View all news | Send to a friend | Print
A New era for local
Eastern Iron’s general manager Peter Buckley with Geological Ore Search Anthony Quirk at Cobar’s Memorial Services Club
The multi-metal rich Cobar peneplain is continuing to prove an attractive magnet for exploration with Eastern Iron Ltd being the latest company to seek a potentially valuable mineral resource. Recently listed on the ASX, Eastern Iron has secured exploration rights to 2800sq/kms of tenements extending from Byrock, Coolabah and Cobar to Mt Hope and Euabalong to search for maghenite.
Aeromagnetic surveys have already revealed extensive networks of palaeochannels containing very large quantities of low grade, yet easily extractable iron mineralisation.
Iron-rich magnetic palaeochannels have been identified across about 1100 kilometres within the combined Cobar-Main Line tenements and also have the potential to contain alluvial gold and other minerals along with iron ore.
Preliminary work including limited drilling and sampling so far has confirmed a possible future ex-mine product of plus 50 per cent maghemite iron.
Ore mined from the project could be blended and railed direct from Cobar to Newcastle or delivered via the Southern main line through Parkes to Port Kembla.
Addressing a series of public information meetings in Coolabah, Cobar and Lake Cargelligo last week, Eastern Iron’s managing director Peter Buckley used computerised projected images to illustrate the Company’s future exploration and development plans and to allay local landholders’ fears about potential (surface) mining.
A former State Government geologist, Mr Buckley’s 14-year mineral’s profile includes geoscience research, resource development and gold, base and ferrous metal exploration in both NSW and Western Australia.
During last Thursday’s Cobar presentation, he explained how Eastern Iron would be seeking to raise between $2.5 million and $5 million to boost exploration through selective drilling and work on benefication (ore-refining) techniques.
The Company will be targetting the discovery of higher grade deposits and the establishment of indicative tonnages that may form the basis of a future iron ore mining project.
Eastern Iron, Mr Buckley said, hoped to be eventually up and running in the Cobar area with a viable operation and long term contracts.
“Despite NSW’s early iron ore mining industry and its rich history of iron and steel manufacture, the iron ore potential in palaeochannels in the Cobar peneplain has remained unrecognised,” he explained.
“Eastern Iron’s exploration focus is based on a new concept that recognises the existence of very large quantities of shallow, low-grade, yet easily extractable iron-rich material in the extensive networks of palaeochannels that exist in this part of NSW.
“Iron-rich palaeochannels have been identified by aeromagnetics over approximately 1100 kilometres within the combined Cobar-Main Line project tenements and these may have substantial tonnage potential.”
The Cobar region with it’s established infrastructure and transport links, Mr Buckley said, is ideal for developing a new mining operation.
“Cobar is a booming mining centre and is strategically located on a railway line that currently transports zinc, lead and copper concentrates for export through the Port of Newcastle,” he said.
“Eastern Iron’s Main Line project area is close to Euabalong on the main east/west transcontinental railway and near the Moomba to Sydney gas pipeline.
“The Cobar region is also one of the richest gold producing provinces in NSW and some of the 1100 kilometres of palaeochannels of Eastern Iron’s tenements may contain alluvial gold and other minerals along with iron ore.
“A major exploration program, including aircore and reverse circulation drilling will be carried out to complete an assessment together with fine tuning of a magnetic benefication process.”
Mr Buckley said aerial magnetic data showed clearly where maghemite had been washed into dried river channels formed more than 20 million years ago.
Surveys indicated some 1100 kilometres of iron-rich palaeochannels, some 10 klms long, 400 metres wide and 10 metres deep, existed in the Cobar area alone.
Mining maghemite shallow channels, he said, would be an environmentally sustainable process similar to sand mining with the operation removing just 15 per cent of material and returning the surface close to original profile.
“If we can commercialise this, it could be a very large project and iron’s ‘new horizon’ in eastern Australia,” he said.
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