Impact’s first international expansion

  The mineral prospectivity of the African state of Botswana has been selected as the launching pad for the first overseas exploration foray by Australia’s Impact Minerals Ltd.Perth-based Impact said yesterday that it had commenced its previously flagged international campaign with the lodgment of applications for a large number of prospecting licences in Botswana, and the appointment of former Falconbridge group Director, John Blaine, as its on-the ground spearhead for its African intentions.“Botswana is a southern African country that has a long history of mining and exploration, and has been a stable self-governing democracy since independence from Britain in 1966,” Impact Minerals’ Managing Director, Dr Mike Jones, said yesterday.“It is the world’s largest producer of diamonds by value (about 24%), produces nickel and gold and has known uranium prospects. It is therefore a natural demographic for our first overseas foray.“We are also looking at strategies to increase our exposure to potential nickel deposits in Africa in tandem with our uranium focus as these developments have the potential to evolve a new cornerstone business within Impact’s strategy of developing as a nickel, uranium and gold explorer and producer.” Impact has applied for a significant area of ground prospective for near-surface deposits of uranium, some of which are close to and along strike from known uranium prospects held by other parties. The applications, for Prospecting Licences, are currently being considered by the Botswana Department of Mines and there is no certainty that all of them will be granted. Further information on these applications will be provided when any grant of the tenements is announced, expected in the first half of 2008. Dr Jones said the appointment of Mr Blaine as an African-based mining expert was critical to underpinning the success of the company’s business development and exploration objectives in Africa.Dr Jones added that, when granted, the new tenements in Botswana will complement Impact’s existing portfolio of uranium projects at Nowthanna in Western Australia, where the company has a 40% share of the Inferred Resource, a net entitlement of 3.92 million tonnes at an average grade of 450 ppm for a contained 1,800t or 4 million pounds of uranium oxide, and the wholly owned the Pebble Creek project in Queensland. The company has also recently announced an expansion of its gold exploration efforts in Queensland where it has a significant tenement holding in the Drummond Basin, one of Australia’s most prospective and under-explored areas for large gold deposits.