Western Desert acquires first iron ore project

  Gold, base metals and uranium explorer exploration company, Western Desert Resources has further expanded its minerals exploration portfolio with the acquisition of its first iron ore project.The company has entered into an agreement with Bluekebble Pty Limited to acquire the exploration rights to three iron ore tenements in the Dawsonvale area of Queensland. The agreement is that Western Desert will acquire the whole of Bluekebble’s interests in one granted tenement and two tenement applications.This acquisition of this iron ore project is an important step in broadening the portfolio of Western Desert Resources.The project area encompasses an ironstone unit, which crops out over an area in excess of 400sqkm. Wide-spaced drilling within part of this unit carried out by explorers in the early 1980s identified a metallurgically complex iron deposit. Assays from most drillholes returned iron values in the range 30-40%. Western Desert said that, as no further work has been carried out, there is potential for a substantial deposit of oolitic iron ore. The oolitic ore contains goethite, which, like magnetite or hematite, is a mineral composed predominantly of iron.Historical exploration focused on the area appears to have defined significant extensions to this mineralisation.Western Desert has proposed a program consisting of exploratory drilling, metallurgical test work and resource definition drilling to define zones of iron mineralisation suitable for beneficiation to direct shipping ore.