To date, land access restrictions imposed by the Commonwealth Department of Defence have prevented any field work from occurring on the subject tenement, taken up to cover the Giffen Well magnetite iron ore deposit and adjacent inferred...
To date, land access restrictions imposed by the Commonwealth Department of Defence have prevented any field work from occurring on the subject tenement, taken up to cover the Giffen Well magnetite iron ore deposit and adjacent inferred prospective ground located along the Bulgunnia Fault Zone. During 2009, beneficiation tests were carried out for the licensee in Nanjing, China on a 10 kg bulk magnetite ore sample collected from the stored drill core of diamond drillhole GWDD1. Grinding, magnetic separation and flotation experiments were conducted there to obtain a magnetite mineral concentrate which was sent to SGS in Perth, WA for assaying. The results qualified the concentrate material as being suitable for conversion into iron pellet feedstock to use for blast furnace steelmaking. During 2010, Maosen Australia retained AMC Consultants to review the geology of the Giffen Well deposit and to propose a work programme that would enable the acquisition of data sufficient to estimate a JORC-compliant inferred mineral resource at this deposit. The recommendation was to drill a minimum of 73 RC precollared diamond holes that would test for depth extensions to lodes in the current drilled area (68 holes on record) and would explore for possible similar mineralisation in adjacent geophysical anomaly ridges. In January 2012, the licensee and WPG Resources Ltd (WPG) entered into a binding heads of agreement allowing the latter to have exclusive rights for a period of twelve months to conduct initial exploration and resource definition drilling, and to complete a prefeasibility study aimed at the development of an iron ore mine. WPG subsequently undertook limited resource definition drilling of the Giffen Well iron ore deposit: 14 RC percussion inclined holes for 2205 m, and two RC precollared diamond tail inclined holes for 369 m (including 271 m of HQ coring), were drilled between March and May 2012. The intent was to supplement the historical drilling data from Giffen Well by creating drill sections at 200 m spacing through the main BIF zone; drill holes along these sections were spaced 100 m apart across strike. The new drilling results further delineated the three known magnetite BIF zones of varying strike lengths as outlined by ground magnetic and gravity data. The main zone is 4 km long and up to 350 m wide, and remains open at depth from 160 m vertically below surface. The western zone has an interpreted strike length of 1.4 km, but has to date received limited drilling; the same applies to the central zone. The upper portion of each zone has been oxidised to varying depths, necessitating the determination of oxide and primary BIF mineralisation classifications. A global resource estimate, based on a block model that is constrained by 3D wireframes for each of the BIF zones, has defined a preliminary JORC - compliant Indicated/Inferred Resource of 689.1 MT @ 31.4% Fe. After May 2012, WPG went on to prepare, at a cost of A$3M, a preliminary prefeasibility study report for the Giffen Well magnetite iron ore project, that included the envisaged use for ore treatment and export purposes of the company's land assets located in Port Pirie and the supply of coal, process water and generated electricity from WPG's planned open pit mine at the Penrhyn coal deposit, located relatively close to Giffen Well. This detailed report was provided to Maosen in February 2013, and was released to the ASX on 8/3/2013. However, on 7/5/2013, WPG Resources announced that it had decided to allow its base option to acquire a 25% joint venture interest in the project to expire, unexercised. In consequence, Maosen immediately began a search for a new joint venture partner. During 2014, Maosen was in negotiation with Italian mineral processing equipment supplier Danieli regarding the envisaged general supply contracting of the Giffen Well project. Danieli generated two separate iron product pre-feasibility study reports based on Maosen's advice (for Hot Briquetted Iron vs billet iron). Estimated construction costs to set up either type of iron production plant ranged between A$2.30 B and A$3.03 B. This outlay amount was then offset against forecast sales volumes and prices for HBI vs billet, and the conclusion reached was that the project was feasible to develop. Consequently, Maosen next began discussions with Danieli about undertaking laboratory testwork to inform conceptual design of a HBI production plant at Giffen Well (the contractor's written quote for proposed testwork was supplied by Maosen to DSD). During 2015, for the Giffen Well project, Maosen commissioned a project planning 20-year period financial analysis report to be prepared by Inter Financial Corporate Finance Limited, and entered discussions with Runge Pincock Minarco about starting work on a definitive feasibility study. During 2016, no work was done. Maosen continued to promote the Giffen Well project HBI option economics to potential investors. During 2017, no fieldwork was completed. Included was a report entitle “Maosen Iron Ore Project in South Australia: from Mining, Beneficiation, Pelletization to Port Loading”. During 2018, no exploration work was undertaken. The company signed a contract with the China Iron and Steel Corporation, visited the Giffen Well and Braemar mines with the Chinese investors' due diligence representatives, and discussed the new resource estimation and valuation reports with DW Resources Industry Consulting Co. Ltd.
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