701 Mile Project - Manganese

The 701 Mile tenements consist of one granted tenement (E52/1531) and one tenement application (E52/2232) located approximately 70km south-east of Newman, Western Australia.  The tenements cover Proterozoic age rocks of the Collier and Officer Basins that contain known occurrences of Manganese, similar to those at the nearby Balfour Downs (non JORC compliant resources in excess of 15 million tonnes operated by Hancock Prospecting Ltd) and the Jigalong Prospect (Hannans Reward Ltd).

Within the Collier Basin, stratabound supergene manganese mineralisation occurs within or on the “Managanese subgroup” shales of the Balfour Formation. Shaw River regards the 701 Mile Project as highly prospective for manganese given the similar geology and results to date on surrounding tenements.

Within the 701 Mile Project area, historical exploration Dampier Mining (1976) identified surface enrichment of manganese in shales of the Manganese sub group over a strike length of 3km.  The shales dip on average 5-10 deg to the west and disappear below alluvium to the west and south.  Banded Iron formation was associated with the same horizon along strike.  No surface sampling results were reported by Dampier Mining.

World class Iron ore deposits of the Pilbara occur within the Brockman, Marra Mamba and Boolgeeda Iron Formation of the Hamersley Basin, and whilst these do not occur on surface within the 701 Mile Project area, there is some potential that they may occur at depth or as faulted blocks.

A number of CID (Channel Iron Deposits) and scree slope deposits also occur in the region. and within the 701 Mile Project area. These may occur buried by thin recent sediments. Closer investigation of strong linear magnetic features over the tenements forms a valid exploration model for this deposit type.

Plans for 2009

Shaw River’s exploration team will conduct mapping and rock chip sampling over the outcrop areas at 701 Mile Project in late 2008. Results of this work will be interpreted with a view to conducting exploration drilling in 2009.