Oakajee Port and RailRockleaJack Hills ProjectStage 1Stage 2Weld Range Project

Rocklea Project 

In two separate agreements, Murchison has acquired E47/952 from Austral Gold Limited and iron ore rights on the adjoining E47/1153 from Joytell Pty Ltd.  

 

The two tenements, to be known as the Rocklea Project, total over 400 square kilometres and are considered to be highly prospective for Channel Iron Deposit style mineralisation. Up to 40 strike kilometres of prospective paleo-channel has been identified on the tenements from satellite imagery and geological mapping. 

 

Located between the major iron ore mining towns of Tom Price and Paraburdoo, the Rocklea tenements are close to existing infrastructure that will facilitate exploration and potentially any future development activities. The project is situated 50 km north-west of Paraburdoo and 30 km west of Tom Price. 

 

The northern tenement at the Rocklea Project has previously been explored for iron ore by Jupiter Mines Ltd. (“Jupiter”). Jupiter took 12 rock chip samples[1] along the length of the paleo-channel that averaged:

54.9% Fe, 0.03% P, 5.7% SiO ₂ , 3.4% Al ₂ O ₃ , 10.5% LOI   

or 61.3% Calcined Iron

Jupiter followed up with 55 reconnaissance drill holes. Six drill holes returned iron assays greater than 50% Fe with a maximum thickness[2] of 10m. Only a small component of the paleo-channel could be tested before the exploration program ended prematurely.    

The southern tenement of the Rocklea Project has not previously been explored for iron. Murchison recently visited the tenement and collected 10 rock chip samples from various locations along the full length of the paleo-channel within the southern lease. The samples were 4 to 5kg in mass, were comprised of pebble to cobble size rocks, and were submitted to Ultra Trace Analytical Laboratories. The results averaged: 

56.0% Fe, 0.03% P, 5.1% SiO₂ , 2.3% Al₂ O₃ 10.5% LOI 

or 62.6% Calcined Iron 

To the north of Murchison’s Rocklea Project, the same paleo-channel hosts Rio Tinto Limited’s 400Mt Beasley River Channel Iron Deposit[3] . To the east, Ausquest Limited has had exploration success[4] on the same paleochannel by drilling targets initially identified by Hamersley Iron in the 1970s. 

Murchison intends to rapidly advance all necessary environmental and heritage approvals and begin drilling in the second half of 2008. 

Due to the preliminary state of exploration at the Rocklea Project there is currently insufficient data to define a Mineral Resource or to determine whether future exploration will result in the determination of a Mineral Resource.

[1] Jupiter Mines Limited ASX Quarterly Report 31 January 2006 

[2] Jupiter Mines Limited ASX Release 11 April 2007

[3] Rio Tinto Limited ASX Release 7 April 2004. Note that the Rio Tinto release does not contain a Competent Person’s statement and cannot be verified by Murchison as a Mineral Resource. 

[4] Ausquest Limited ASX Release 19 July 2006

Competent Person’s Statement 

The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results and Mineral Resources is based on information compiled by Mr Sean Gregory , who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and is a full time employee of Murchison Metals Ltd. Mr Gregory has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Gregory consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.