During licence Year 6, in November 2005, Mt Gibson Iron Limited (MGI) undertook a brief exploration campaign at Hawks Nest, acting under the terms of an access and option agreement which it had made with Felix Resources Limited, a company seeking to buy EL 3196 outright from SASE Pty Ltd in the near future. MGI was aware that at Hawks Nest previously, MESA had performed appraisal drilling in 1995 which had identified a significant resource of 5 Mt of high grade (>60% Fe) haematite at Buzzard deposit to the north-east, as well as a resource of hundreds of millions of tonnes of magnetite BIF. That 1995 drilling was mainly RC, but some diamond cored holes had also been drilled. These holes were widely spaced, except for at Buzzard and along traverses crossing Kestrel deposit, of which one traverse had extended down to Harrier deposit. At the time they had given MESA a good indication of the likely distribution of haematite mineralisation at Buzzard, and some indication of the magnetite mineralisation, but did not provide sufficient coverage to demonstrate detailed continuity of the BIF strata or to locate additional haematite. MGI examined all earlier reports about the Hawks Nest deposits available from MESA, to separately focus its planned exploration onto both haematite and magnetite targets. Stored drillhole samples were re-sampled at PIRSA's Core Library, and then the permitted to be taken (for destruction) samples were sent to Amdel for magnetic recovery Davis Tube separation of magnetic mineral grains prepared at a standard grind size, and chemical analysis of the magnetic concentrate. This sampling and testing indicated that significant upgrading of the magnetite BIF was possible. However, the costs associated with building a complex magnetite concentration plant in a remote location and providing services and infrastructure were considered to be prohibitive. MGI obtained the data from MESA's 1995 Hawks Nest ground gravity survey and had them reprocessed by a geophysicist to produce a Bouguer anomaly map and a first vertical derivative map for both Hawks Nest and Giffen Well prospect. The 1VD image for Hawks Nest was used to locate areas of dense gravity response. Likewise, 1995 MESA ground magnetic survey data were procured and reprocessed to delineate highly magnetic targets for magnetite BIF and slightly magnetic targets in BIF as possible secondary haematite deposits. Coinciding dense gravity and low magnetic responses were considered to signify possible haematite enrichment of the BIF, and thus be worthy of drill testing on a broad scale. Perceived operational drawbacks such as the remoteness of the deposits, the difficulty of attracting good technical people to work in such an area, and the lack of water available for processing, led MGI to decide to limit its search at Hawks Nest to address only additional direct shipping grade haematite ore rather than magnetite BIF which would require upgrading in a complex plant. So in late 2005 the company drilled 10 infill RC southwards inclined holes for 873 m in order to check for a strike direction extension of the Buzzard haematite to the SW, in an area of low magnetic signature and numerous interpreted faults. These holes encountered only weathered haematite BIF containing a few narrow and scattered DSO grade haematite lenses, and the pinching out of ore closed off the SW extent of the deposit. The first hole, HNMG01, was drilled at an incline towards the north as a scissors hole designed to intersect haematite mineralisation located in a 1995 hole drilled towards the south, but it failed to intersect any haematite. It was concluded that the coincident geophysical anomalies were due merely to weathered BIF and not the sought for haematite. Consequently, the option to purchase the tenement from Felix Resources at considerable cost was not exercised by MGI. During Licence Year 7, after Southern Iron Pty Ltd had bought out Felix Resources' interest in EL 3196, and then was itself taken over by Western Plains Resources Limited (WPR), WPR operated the 2006-2007 exploration programme. The company re-evaluated all previous work results, with an emphasis on modelling and re-interpreting the magnetic and gravity information. Several geophysical anomalies were identified that were considered to have potential to be caused by buried DSO haematite rather than magnetite. None of these targets had been adequately tested by the earlier drilling, nor explained by the current geological interpretation. Re-interpretation of the historical magnetic data was difficult, as the data were not in a format suitable to use for image processing. So the models for each of the prospects (Buzzard, Central, Eagle, Harrier, Kite, and M1) were generated from gravity data alone, and consisted basically of a residual gravity contour map drawn using 0.2 mGal contour intervals. Lines were selected which pass through the major part of each anomaly, and tabular ore zone models were constructed based on the existing datasets. During March-April 2007, WPR drilled 19 mainly inclined RC holes for 2081 m (HNWPR1 - HNWPR19) to test selected geophysical anomalies and to follow up on high grade iron intercepts made in previous drilling done at the Kite prospect. Four of the holes had to be abandoned due to inability to penetrate unconsolidated sand cover. With the exception of hole HNWPR15, all completed holes intersected mineralised BIF over significant intervals with average iron contents that range between 30% and 50%. Significant mineralisation grading in the range of 50% to 60% Fe was intersected in holes HNWPR8 (Buzzard East) and HNWPR6 (Kite South), to be followed up with further drilling. During licence Year 8, additional drilling of 26 inclined RC holes for 3771.8 m (HNWPR36, 38 - 43, 46 - 62) was undertaken to better define the high grade haematite mineralisation at Buzzard and to test for extensions to the deposit at either end. Three large PQ diameter diamond cored holes (HNWPR34, 35 and 40) were drilled into the main part of the Buzzard ore zone down to a vertical depth of 249.3 m to provide samples for metallurgical testwork. One inclined RC percussion hole, HNWPR37, designed to test the deposit at depth, was deepened from 173.6 m to TD 288.3 m with a HQ diamond cored tail. An initial JORC compliant block modelled indicated+inferred mineral resource of ~14.11 Mt @ 62.0 % Fe was estimated by WPR for Buzzard, using a 55% Fe cut-off grade. Another part of the year's drilling programme was to follow up high grade iron intercepts made earlier in 2007 at Kite South and ~600 m north-east of Buzzard (this latter occurrence is now known as the Tui prospect). The RC drilling of 24 holes for 4073 m at Tui (HNWPR20 - 25, 44, 45, 63 - 74, 76 - 81) along traverses spaced either 60 m or 120 m apart resulted in the discovery of a new deposit of high grade haematite situated marginal to a larger body of haematite BIF, but the RC drilling of 8 holes for 486 m at Kite South (HNWPR26 - HNWPR33) did not reveal any more high grade oxidised BIF. An initial JORC compliant block modelled indicated+inferred mineral resource of 31.02 Mt @ 41.1 % Fe was estimated by WPR for Tui. Seven exploratory RC holes for 978 m were drilled elsewhere on the licence area. Two holes were drilled 470 m south-east of Buzzard to expand around an intercept made previously in hole HKN108 (16 m @ 59.7% Fe). They were collared 50 m to either side of HKN108. Two narrow zones of high grade mineralisation were encountered in hole HNWPR58: in the upper oxidized zone (24-30 m), 6 m @ 62.2% Fe), and deeper (64-76 m), 12 m @ 60.9% Fe. High grade mineralisation was intersected over a 16 m interval in hole HNWPR59 from 136 to 152 m, with an average grade of 62.2% Fe. At the Harrier prospect, one vertical RC hole, HNWPR75, was drilled adjacent to a previous WPG hole HNWPR18 (69 m @ 36.6% Fe). An intersection of 84 m @ 40.5% Fe in magnetite BIF was recorded from this hole, and is considered significant in terms of the potential of this large magnetic anomaly to host a substantial iron resource. In January 2008, a 4108 line km detailed airborne magnetic/radiometric/DTM survey was flown for WPR over the licence area along north-south flight lines 100 m apart, using a 40 m mean sensor height above the ground surface, to provide data to assist in basement mapping and for defining new targets for DSO haematite mineralisation. WPR completed a development scoping study for the 220 Mt Kestrel magnetite deposit at Hawks Nest. This study included performing Davis Tube Recovery metallurgical tests on RC percussion drillhole ore samples recovered from previous drilling, together with preliminary planning work for open pit mine design and mining optimisation. Results of this study were considered highly encouraging, and in the near future the company intends to commence making a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on the most economic ways to mine and process the Hawks Nest magnetite deposits. During licence Year 9, in August-September 2008, WPR undertook exploratory drilling of 21 inclined holes for 3737 m (HNWPR83 to 95a, HNWPR96 to 102) to test nine new targets for DSO haematite mineralisation and to follow up drillhole high grade iron intercepts recorded in its earlier HNWPR58 and 59 holes at Buzzard South East. The targets were selected from a combination of geophysical and geological criteria, the latter being chosen afresh following the creation of a new regional geological interpretation that incorporated previous drillhole lithological data and results of the detailed low level aeromagnetic survey completed by WPR early in 2008. Two inclined diamond cored holes for 410 m (HNWPR103 and 104) were also drilled in the central part of the Tui prospect. The PQ cores from these holes will be used for metallurgical sample testwork and to provide data for geotechnical studies. No significant new DSO haematite deposits were located. However narrow zones of high grade haematite were intersected in two of the holes drilled at Buzzard South East, and fifteen of the twenty-one RC holes intersected large thicknesses of haematite BIF. This mineralisation is similar in composition and iron content to that situated adjacent to the high grade DSO haematite deposits at Buzzard and Tui. Following the conduct of supplementary resource estimates for the newly disclosed mineralised zones in the south-east and west at Buzzard, using a 30% Fe cut-off for the updated model, the revised total haematite BIF resource so far outlined at Hawks Nest now amounted to 102.5 Mt @ 37.4% Fe, 43.8% SiO2, 0.99% Al2O3, 0.04% P, 0.66% LOI. WPR's new regional geological interpretation suggested that the Hawks Nest BIFs most likely formed as silica-iron gels in a deep water sedimentary basin, with an axis lying somewhere in the vicinity of MGA 512 000E. The depositional environment appeared to have been cyclical, with at least three major iron accumulations evident, especially in the central part of the basin. Where seen in the drill cuttings and core, the non-outcropping contemporaneous host lithologies comprise fine grained, poorly laminated chloritic and haematitic sediments. In hand specimen, the Hawks Nest BIFs can exhibit the complex microfolding, faulting, brecciation and remobilisation textures common to many of the deposits in WA and elsewhere. However, in places the BIFs can also be quite regular with a consistent bedding orientation over several tens of metres. On a macro scale, the regional interpretation indicated that the BIF horizons have been folded into open fold structures in plan view, and also in section, where such profiles exist at Buzzard and Kestrel. The BIFs are offset by major fault structures that have a dominant north-northwest to north-west trend, and coincide in many instances with dolerite dykes of the Gairdner Dyke Swarm. The most significant fault offset appeared to be the westward sinistral movement of 5.1 km for the Eagle - Falcon - Kite zone, away from the southern end of the Goshawk and Harrier horizons. WPR recognised two styles of massive haematite mineralisation at Hawks Nest: - the main ore zones in the central section of the Buzzard deposit exhibit a degree of conformability with the enclosing haematite BIFs. The iron enrichment of these zones was probably due largely to remobilisation during diagenesis. These ore bodies have limited strike dimensions (300 m) and may have formed in a restricted sub-basin; - the massive haematite zones at the western end of the Buzzard deposit (from 9510E to 9800E) and in places at Tui are fault-related, and most likely were formed by secondary enrichment through the percolation of meteoric and oxygenated ground water down and along fault structures. At Tui some thermal metamorphic effects related to a gabbro intrusion most likely also caused upgrading of the haematite BIF iron content from being in the range 30 – 45% to reaching an average in excess of 60%. Rock material bulk densities, crusher comminution work indices, abrasion indices and unconfined compressive strength measurements were made on drill core samples of DSO haematite ore from Buzzard. In addition, 39 down hole composites were prepared and testwork on these composites included crushing and drop tower testing, assay and moisture determinations. The latter handling tests suggested that the lump fraction of DSO which can be extracted from the Buzzard deposit will exceed 65%. WPR's consultant mining engineers prepared an optimised open pit mine design for the 12.8 Mt Buzzard orebody, based on the extraction of the massive haematite zone and overlying limonite cap. This staged design, incorporating assumed 5-metre high benches, indicated that the life of mine average waste:ore ratio for the pit would be 6.3:1.