Opportunities and challenges for

exploration in the Territory Ian Scrimgeour

Executive Director, Northern Territory Geological Survey

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$ M

illio

ns

Mineral exploration expenditure since 2000

2012/13 –

$131.7M

Challenging times for mineral exploration, but there is still good news

• Development of Roper iron field underway as NT enters new mining boom

• Teena discovery leads resurgence of interest in shale-hosted zinc-lead

• Exciting copper results across Arunta highlight potential of central Australia

• Smart exploration is delivering results

• Shale gas exploration boom

• Rapidly expanding geoscience knowledge base

Western Desert Resources: Roper Bar

Total resource: 611 Mt @ 40.3% Fe

Includes: 30.8Mt @ 59.0% Fe (Area F)

and 16.6 Mt @ 54.2% Fe (Area E)

• Targeting first DSO shipment in Q4 2013

• Export through Bing Bong port

• Offtake agreement with Noble Resources

Sherwin Iron: Roper River

Total resource: 488 Mt @ 41.7% Fe

Includes 41.1Mt @ 57.8% Fe

Deposit C – 18.42 Mt @ 58.3% Fe

Deposits W, X – 22.74 Mt @ 57.5% Fe

• Export via Roper Hwy, then to Darwin port

• First DSO shipment from bulk sample this

month

v

Roper iron field

1.88 Mt @ 10.10 g/t Au (300 g/t top cut) 1.88 Mt @ 11.96 g/t Au (no top cut)

• High-grade vein-hosted deposit with potential to be a low-cost mining operation

with a simple gravity extraction process

• New discoveries in area (eg Golden Hind) show potential for size of system to

increase (34,000t @ 45.59 g/t Au)

• Trial mining/bulk sampling and processing underway, >5000t mined

Company: ABM Resources

Old Pirate Au

Gold – Pine Creek

Cosmo Deeps

Company: Crocodile Gold

Cosmo Deeps in production

High-grade resources beneath Union

Reefs

Spring Hill

Company: Thor Mining

Plans announced for development

4.0 Mt @ 2.32 g/t Au

Mount Todd

Company: Vista Gold

350 Mt @ 0.81 g/t Au

Revised two-stage development

Mount Bundy project

Company: Primary Gold Ltd

Investigating restarting Toms Gully

Rum Jungle Resources - Barrow Creek 1

Near-surface high-grade phosphate

238 Mt @ 14.6% P2O5

Now combined with Arganara :

310 Mt @ 15% P2O5

Barrow Creek region

TNG Ltd - Mount Peake V-Ti-Fe 160 Mt @ 0.28% V2O5 , 5.3% TiO2, 23% Fe

Significant downstream processing

Recent greenfields discoveries moving

towards development

Copper in central Australia

Kidman Resources –

Home of Bullion Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag-Au

Geophysical targeting identifying extensions

to mineralisation

Main Lode:

5m @ 6.5% Cu, 53g/t Ag, 2.75% Zn, 0.63% Pb, 0.61 g/t Au

36m @ 2.78% Cu, 0.9% Pb, 2.3% Zn, 27.6g/t Ag, 0.2g/t Au

including 10m @ 8.5% Cu, 0.6% Pb, 4.35% Zn, 40.9 g/t Ag

Southern Lode:

26m @ 4.6% Cu, 5.5% Pb, 1.84% Zn, 142.9 g/t Ag

(true width 6-8m)

Momentum building for copper and copper-

gold exploration

KGL Resources Ltd – Jervois Cu-Ag-Au(-Pb-Zn)

• 13.5 Mt @ 1.3% Cu, 25.8g/t Ag

• 20,000m drilling program commencing

Reward: 9m @ 4.9% Cu, 1.22 g/t Au, 66.2 g/t Ag

72m @ 3.27% Cu, 1.16g/t Au, 51.3g/t Ag

Bellbird : 6m @ 1.2% Cu, 12.43 g/t Au, 10.3 g/t Ag

Copper in central Australia

Copper in central Australia

Arunta Resources Ltd - Johnnies Reward

Gold-copper mineralisation in granulites

• 24m @ 4.19% Au, 0.33% Cu

• 34m @ 3.83% Au, 0.44% Cu

• 22m @ 1.23% Au, 1.21% Cu

TNG Ltd - Mount Hardy

• 10.7m @ 4.1%Cu

• 1m @ 2.35% Cu, 3.08%

Zn, 1.16% Pb

Mithril Resources Ltd – Illogwa IOCG

• Greenfields discovery of potential new regional-

scale iron-oxide Cu-Au (IOCG) system, following up

NTGS mapping

• 2m at 1.15% Cu, 0.23 g/t Au and 5.3 g/t Ag

• New drilling program underway

• MMG drilling for Ni-Cu targets

Copper-gold discoveries using HeliTEM

Mineralisation in shear zones with quartz-

chlorite-sulfide veins

Goanna - 15m @ 4.19% Cu, 8.13 g/t Au

- 26m @ 4.75% Cu (incl. 8m @

9.32% Cu)

Monitor - 15m @ 5.05% Cu

- 12m @ 16.9 g/t Au, 2.00% Cu

Emmerson Resources Ltd

Gecko mine corridor Cu-Au

Tennant Creek and Rover Cu-Au fields

Metals X Ltd – Rover 1

Approvals process for exploration

decline underway

Tennant Creek Cu-Au

TUC Resources Ltd: Stromberg

Discovery of high-value heavy rare earth elements

(yttrium and dysprosium) at surface

4.2m @ 0.93% TREO (92% HREO/TREO)

Potential for numerous deposits

Arafura Resources: Nolans Bore

Major resource upgrade

47Mt @ 2.6% REO, 11% P2O5, 0.02% U3O8

55% in Measured and Indicated category

Crossland Uranium Mines: Charley Creek

Potential for development of mining of alluvial

sand for production of a REE-bearing concentrate

Indicated: 387 Mt @ 295ppm REO

Inferred: 418 Mt @ 289ppm REO

including 17% HREE (in xenotime)

Rare earth elements

• high-grade discovery in western

Arnhem Land

Hole WRD0084:

12.2 m @ 1.1% U3O8 followed by

20.2m @ 5.2% U3O8 incl. 0.5m @

27.8% U3O8

Cameco Australia - Angularli

$10M in expenditure in 2012/13 (down

from $55M in 2008/09)

• Mining ceased at Ranger 3 open cut

• Ranger 3 Deeps exploration decline

and drilling underway

39m @ 0.88% U3O8

ERA – Ranger 3 Deeps

Uranium

Hole 1:

26.4m @ 13.3% Zn+Pb, from 1060m

including

8.0m @ 21.2% Zn+Pb

Hole 2:

20.1m @ 15.0% Zn+Pb from 944m

including

12.5m @ 19.5% Zn+Pb

Teena – a major zinc disovery

• Rox Resources – Teck Australia joint venture

• 10 km west of McArthur River

• Similar deposit to McArthur River, but deep

(up to 1 km)

Zinc

MMG JV into

AngloAustralian’s

Victoria River

project – untested

potential shale

sub-basin

EM and drilling

planned in 2013

A resurgence of zinc exploration?

Batten Fault Zone –

• Teck exercise $10M

option in Reward JV

• MMG enter $10M

exploration JV with

Sandfire

Pitchblack Resources

Ltd acquiring 90%

interest in Crocodile

Gold’s base metals

assets in the Pine Creek

Orogen (includes $4m

exploration

commitment)

Map of shale oil/gas basins, Geoscience Australia

Shale gas

Surprise -1: Central Petroleum • 200-400 barrels per day of light sweet crude

• First onshore oil discovery in NT for 50 years

• 4560 bbl produced, 3D seismic acquired

• Santos farm-in into other Central tenements

Onshore petroleum

Batten Fault Zone: Armour Energy • 3 wells in 2012

• flows equivalent to 3.3 million standard cubic feet of

gas per day from Glyde-1

Beetaloo Sub-basin: Falcon Oil and Gas • 3,600 line km of 2D seismic in 2012

• Hess withdrawl from JV

Georgina Basin: Petrofrontier-Statoil • 3 horizontal wells drilled in 2012

• positive oil shows but hampered by technical issues

Challenges for greenfields

exploration

• Difficulties in raising funds for

greenfields exploration

• Rising costs of discovery, especially in

Australia

• High-risk nature of undercover

exploration

Role of Government is to lower the risk

and cost of discovery relative to other

jurisdictions

CORE – Creating Opportunities for Resource Exploration

• Regional gravity surveys

• 1:100,000 scale geological mapping and regional prospectivity studies

• Increased focus on sedimentary basins

• Collaborative grants for greenfields drilling and geophysics

• Online delivery of company reports

• Investment Attraction

NT Government Support for exploration

The Geology and Mineral Resources of

the Northern Territory

• first ever comprehensive overview of the

geology and resources of the NT

• definitive reference for mineral and

petroleum explorers

• 1100 pages, with more than 800 photos,

maps and figures

• 42 chapters describing each geological

province and basin descriptions of all

named geological units in the Territory,

and all major mineral deposits and

petroleum fields

Order from the NTGS website

($250 including postage)

Gravity

• Southern McArthur gravity survey

– late 2013

• South Wiso gravity survey

– mid-2013

• East Amadeus gravity survey

– mid-2012

CORE gravity surveys

NTGS Geoscience Programs

• Scoping of a major collaborative study

in the McArthur Basin for shale gas

and zinc

• Arunta Region continues to be a major

focus – Jervois 1:100k mapping

underway

• Amadeus Basin study underway –

including collaboration with CSIRO

and commencement of mapping

• Hyperspectral logging of drillcore

incorporated into projects

Summary

• Despite a major downturn in exploration, there are positive signs in the Territory

• Recent exploration boom has generated a pipeline of new mining projects

• New discoveries and emerging mineral fields in the McArthur and central Australia

• Gas exploration and development is emerging as a major industry

• NT Geological Survey is working to stimulate exploration in the region through the

CORE initiative

March 18-19 2014,

Alice Springs Convention Centre

Annual Geoscience

Exploration Seminar (AGES)