Resource World Magazine

www.resourceworld.com 37 F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 4 T he diversified mining house, IMX Resources Ltd. [IXR-TSX, ASX], has in its top four shareholders Chinese miner Sichuan Taifeng Group and Australian copper/gold giant Oz Minerals Ltd. [OZL-ASX]. Add to this Anglo-American Investments with 2.9% of IMX and you get the impression there is something about this company that makes it worth an investor tak - ing a good look. IMX produces iron ore in South Australia at Cairns Hill with Taifeng in a 51/49 joint ven- ture. In South Australia, IMX has promising projects at nearby Mount Woods – a copper/ gold project and another iron ore play. These projects are located northwest of the giant Olympic Dam Project owned by BHP Billiton. The company is also busy exploring for and developing nickel projects in Tanzania in conjunction with Chinese miner MMG. The Cairns Hill operation produces a pre - mium coarse grained magnetite-copper-gold DSO product at a rate of 1.8Mtpa. The project is a good cash flow generator for the company. It consistently produces about 0.45-6Mtpa for shipping each quarter and is forecast to generate AUS $12-15M by 2015 for IMX. The company announced, in December 2013, that it has completed sales contracts for its 2014 production which means, says, Managing Director, John Nitschke, that exploration and further development is more certain. IMX will make a decision on a Phase II expansion of the Cairns Hill operation early this year which would add 12 months mine life to the project. Twelve km from Cairns Hill is IMX's Mount Woods magnetite project. It has an inferred resource of 569Mt at 27.1% Fe open at depth and along strike. The current explo - ration target tonnage and grades are 0.9-1.2Bt at 18-32% Fe. A feasibility study released last year provided an option for 1.8-4.9Mtpa with a favoured volume in the 2.5-3.5Mtpa range. The grade used in the study was 68.5% Fe. IMX commenced exploration target - ing direct shipping hematite just prior to Christmas 2013. With rail and port access available and the workforce a short distance away at Cairns Hill, IMX believes exploration can be done inexpensively and relatively quickly. Mount Woods has also been the subject of an exploration joint venture with Oz Minerals; copper targets have been the prior - ity. While Oz Minerals is now out of the joint venture, IMX says interest from other parties is strong. In Tanzania IMX is working with joint venture partner MMG at Ntaka Hill, in the south west of the country. The project is managed and sole funded by MMG under a US $60 million earn-in joint venture cov - ering both Ntaka Hill and the surrounding 7,000 km 2 Nachingwea Project. The Stage I exploration commitment is US $10 million by September 2014. MMG is targeting high-grade nickel min- eralization within plunging tubular bodies or chonoliths, with an exploration target in the order of 27 million tonnes grading at or above 1.5% nickel. The current resource estimate is 20.3 Mt of 0.58% nickel and 0.13% copper in the measured and indicated categories and 35.93 Mt of 0.66% nickel and 0.14% copper inferred. Recently released drilling results will no doubt see an upgrade in the resource estimate. On December 10, 2013 IMX announced it has "confirmed the discovery of a new zone of nickel sulphide mineralization immediately adjacent to the current resources." "The new zone, referred to as P Zone, lies approximately 400 metres east of the existing Zeppelin and Sleeping Giant deposits, which host the current resources at Ntaka Hill, and 700 metres south of G and J zones," the com - pany said. Best drilling results from the P Zone were: • 11.4m at 0.51% Ni and 0.15% Cu from 211m down-hole • 2.0m at 1.1% Ni from 266m and 3.4m at 1.2% Ni from 272.4m down-hole • 3.0m at 0.4% Ni from 186m down-hole; and • 17.0m at 0.4% Ni from 223m and 9.3m at 0.4% Ni from 272.7m down-hole. IMX's Nitschke said the results show that "that Ntaka Hill hosts multiple zones of mineralization that appear to be linked and clearly have the potential to form part of a very sizeable, single deposit. Our work sug - gests that this system is approximately 1.5 km wide and remains open to the south and east." The next step, IMX says, is further drill- ing "to define the broader extent of this very large system and also to help us to vector in on higher grade zones of mineralization within it… Results from this work should be available early in the new year, providing drill targets for the 2014 drilling season." n www.precisiongeosurveys.com 604.484.9402 Magnetics - Radiometrics - Time Domain EM Airborne Geophysics IMX Resources: a producer and advanced explorer t By Greg Barns AUSTRALIAN U P D AT E

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