NORTH PERTH BASIN MINERAL SANDS


As part of its commitment to grow and develop its mineral sands resource base, Image Resources has maintained its position as the largest mineral sands tenement holder in the North Perth Basin, with more than 2000 km2 of 100%-owned tenements plus a further 80 km2 of tenements in the Cooljarloo JV (Image 70%).
 
Over the last few years, Image has been exploring for heavy mineral sands in an area extending more than 160 km from north of the existing TiWest Cooljarloo mine to south of Gingin on the Swan Coastal Plain (Fig. 1). Projects include the Cooljarloo North, Cooljarloo, Bidaminna, Bootine, Cataby West, and Quinns Hill as well as Wannamal, Gingin, and McKinley (Fig. 2).

COOLJARLOO NORTH (IMAGE 70%)

 
The Cooljarloo North project comprises E70/2892, E70/3328 and P70/1540, about 18 km east of the town of Cervantes and about 180 km north-northwest of Perth. The commodities sought are mineral sands — ilmenite, rutile and zircon. The project is on the Swan Coastal Plain west of and abutting the Gingin Scarp.

Ground magnetic surveys and follow up drilling at Cooljarloo North have confirmed the presence of numerous, north-northwesterly trending magnetic anomalies representing mineralized paleostrandlines. Of these, two highly mineralized strandline systems (Hyperion and Helene) each extend continuously for more than 4.5 km (Fig. 3).

Helene, in the north of the exploration area, comprises three subparallel strandlines (Fig. 4) and has produced consistently high-grade drill intersections mostly in excess of 5% heavy minerals with a maximum around 20%.

Current resources (June 2010) for Helene are 11.5 Mt at 4.5% HM for 520 kt HM with 55 000 t zircon (0.5%), 19 000 t rutile + leucoxene (0.17%), and 390 000t ilmenite (3.4%).

Current resources (June 2010) for the Hyperion prospect in the southwest (Fig. 4) are estimated at 3.7 Mt at 7.8% HM for 290 000 t HM with 21 000 t zircon at 0.6%, 18 000 t rutile + leucoxene at 0.5%, and 160 000 t ilmenite at 4.3%.

A scoping study in 2009 of the Hyperion and Helene projects showed a combined NPV ranging between $3.9 and $18 million under dry mining and $15 to $38 million under dredge mining options, depending on the exchange rate and other factors. These scenarios assume that Image produces concentrate which is toll treated at an existing dry mineral separation plant. Greater NPV’s could be achieved by existing producers, especially if they are capable of synthetic rutile production.

COOLJARLOO (IMAGE 70%)

The Cooljarloo prospect adjoins the ground held by TiWest’s Cooljarloo heavy mineral sands mine and is situated on heavy mineral strandlines extending northwest from the mine. The tenements are E70/2636, E70/2898, P70/1502, and P70/1516. This area has yielded a total of 95 km of strandline targets (Fig. 5, Atlas, Titan, Telesto, and Calypso) identified by ground magnetic surveys and follow-up aircore drilling.

A major aircore drilling programme over the Atlas deposit during 2009 (Fig. 6) resulted in a significant upgrade in both the size and grade of the Atlas resource, which is expected to markedly increase the net present value of the project.  Atlas is now 7 km long and up to 400 m wide and is one of the better shallow, high-grade resources identified in the North Perth Basin project to date.  Estimation of a Measured Resource at Atlas has commenced, with an updated estimate expected to be available in June.


The highlights of the Atlas resource upgrade are:

- indicated resource estimated as 14.6 Mt at 6.2% heavy minerals with 910 000 t contained heavy minerals

- 102 000 t of zircon, 66 000 t of rutile + leucoxene, 555 000 t of ilmenite

Other current resources at Cooljarloo include:

- Titan (Dredge): 136 Mt at 1.9% HM, 2.6 Mt HM, 245 000 t zircon (0.18%), 79 000 t rutile + leucoxene (0.05%), 1.9 Mt ilmenite (1.4%)

- Calypso (Dredge): 51.5 Mt at 1.7% HM, 850 000 t HM, 90 000 t zircon (0.17%), 44 000 t rutile + leucoxene (0.08%), 600 000 t ilmenite (1.2%)

- Telesto (Dry): 1.9 Mt at 5.7% HM, 110 000 t HM, 10 000 t zircon (0.5%), 6000 t rutile + leucoxene (0.3%), 73 000 t ilmenite (3.8%).

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CORPORATE PROFILE

The Board of Directors is comprised of Mr Peter Thomas, Mr George Sakalidis and Mr Roger Thomson, who between them have an extensive range of exploration, development and commercial expertise relevant to the mineral exploration and resource development business.

The composition of the Board will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure it has the appropriate mix of skills necessary to meet the objectives of the Company.


Mr George Sakalidis - Managing Director

Mr Sakalidis is an exploration geophysicist with over twenty years experience during which time his career has included extensive gold, diamond, base metal and mineral sand exploration. He, with others, has compiled one of the largest aeromagnetic databases in Australia, which is now held by Image Resources. Using this database, Mr Sakalidis has been involved in a number of discoveries including gold discoveries, such as the Three Rivers deposit and the Rose deposit in Western Australia. Mr Sakalidis was instrumental in the acquisition of the Image Resources exploration tenements and the design and interpretation of the magnetic surveys that led to the discovery of the large mineral sands resources at Magnetic Mineral's Dongara Project. Mr Sakalidis a director of Meteoric Resources NL, and was a founding director of Magnetic Minerals Limited and was previously a director of North Star Resources NL.

Mr Peter Thomas - Non-Executive Chairman

Mr Thomas, a lawyer, has specialised for over twenty years in the provision of corporate and commercial advice to ASX listed companies. He has been responsible for the structuring and restructuring of many companies, has been involved with the listing of and has served as (both an executive and non executive) director of a number of listed companies. Mr Thomas was a founding director of aspiring mineral sands producer Magnetic Minerals Limited.

Mr Roger Thomson - Executive Director-Exploration

Mr Thomson is a geologist with more than thirty years experience in mineral exploration, mining geology and management in Australia, Africa, South America and SE Asia. Mr Thomson has held the positions of General Manager Exploration with Delta Gold Ltd and Sons of Gwalia Ltd and has been responsible for, or closely associated with, making economic discoveries of gold and tantalum in Australia. He successfully managed the programme that led to the discovery of the multi-million ounce Sunrise gold deposit, near Laverton in Western Australia. Mr Thomson is an Associate of the Royal School of Mines, a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and a Member of the Society of Economic Geologists. He is a director of Mariana Resources Ltd and Meteoric Resources NL.

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