Aurora Minerals to pen agreement for Camel Hills Project

Australian-based minerals company Aurora Minerals (ASX: ARM) is in discussions with Desert Energy to enter a Joint Venture on Aurora’s large 100% owned Camel Hills Project in central Western Australia.

Under the proposed terms Aurora will grant Desert Energy the option to earn a 70% interest in the project by funding and conducting exploration.

As shareholders will be aware Aurora Minerals owns 47 million (53%) of the shares on issue in Desert Energy. The Company considers the deal a win-win for both parties.

Executive Director Garry O’Hara said the joint venture would provide Aurora with the ability to focus its attention on its large Capricorn Project where its high grade manganese discovery was going to have a very strong drilling focus and where preparation work for this was underway.

It is expected that final details of the proposed Camel Hills Joint Venture will be released to the market in the coming weeks.

The joint venture will be subject to the approval of shareholders of both Desert Energy and Aurora Minerals at general meetings of the two companies.

The Camel Hills Project covers the highly prospective northwest margin of the Archaean Yilgarn Block. Previous exploration has been limited to reconnaissance sampling for magnetite-iron, gold and copper-nickel which has yielded numerous anomalies and targets for follow-up and drill-testing.

A number of significant discoveries have been made around the northern margin of the Yilgarn Block and the adjoining Proterozoic basins, including Nathans (Gold), Labouchere (Gold), Peak Hill (Copper, Gold, Manganese), Three Rivers (Gold), De Grussa (Copper-gold), Plutonic (Gold).

Aurora recently discovered high-grade Magnetite over an extensive area of banded iron formation ridges in the south of the Project with initial beneficiation testwork yielding up to 70.2% Fe.

The testwork on four samples demonstrated that the magnetite is quite crystalline and would produce a high quality concentrate if crushed to -75μm. All concentrates have high iron and low combined Si and Al, making them amenable to carbon cleaning uses which demands a premium price.

Detailed airborne magnetic and radiometric survey flown for Aurora.

The Project also hosts widespread anomalous values in gold, nickel PGE, uranium and rare earths, and is considered highly prospective for ‘Tropicana’ style gold mineralization, Jinchuan nickel-PGE, and unconformity uranium deposits.

Aurora has signed a regional heritage agreement with the Wajarri Native Title Claimant Group which covers the entire project.

Early drill targeting is advancing.

The Camel Hills Project comprises 18 granted exploration licenses and 8 exploration license applications, covering an approximately 4,611 km2 area, located 670km north of Perth, Western Australia, and approx 55km west of the proposed new railroad at Jack Hills (Oakajee Infrastructure Project) planned for completion in 2014.