High iron grades achieved at Marilana

Brockman Resources Ltd has announced highly encouraging results from ongoing....

  Brockman Resources Ltd has announced highly encouraging results from ongoing metallurgical beneficiation testwork on the extensive blanket of lower grade detrital mineralisation that overlies the direct shipping ore (DSO) at the North-West Sector deposit, part of its 100% owned Marillana Iron Ore Project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.Recently received results have demonstrated that iron grades of over 59% Fe can be achieved from simple screening and gravity separation of the detrital mineralisation. Test work completed to date has been restricted to the +0.6mm fraction and the company is confident that beneficiation of the -0.6mm fraction will deliver improved weight recoveries at similar iron grades. This work, in conjunction with testing of additional samples, is currently underway. The samples tested comprise lower grade detrital mineralisation which overlies the higher grade Channel Iron Deposit (CID) mineralisation that forms the basis of the recently announced Indicated Mineral Resource for the North-West Sector of 43.5Mt grading 57.6% iron. These results give the company increased confidence that a marketable upgrade product can be produced from the blanket of detrital mineralisation overlying and adjacent to the CID mineralisation in the North-West Sector and, potentially, the detrital mineralisation at the Rockhole Bore and Abalone Prospects.Brockman is currently negotiating to secure a Caldwell drilling rig to obtain large bulk samples of detrital mineralisation from the Rockhole Bore and Abalone Prospects for pilot scale testwork. Detrital mineralisation in these areas is much shallower than at the North-west Sector (usually starting from 0 – 20m), making them amenable to Caldwell drilling. Typical detrital intersection thicknesses at Rockhole Bore are 30-50m grading 45-53% iron and at Abalone, 20-40m grading 45-50% iron.An initial resource estimate for the detrital mineralisation at Marillana is currently being prepared by the company’s resource consultants and is expected to be released during February 2008. An extensive program of RC and sonic drilling is also scheduled to commence in early March. This program will also include sterilisation drilling for waste dumps and infrastructure.