article from the weekend australian

20 years of aeromagnetic patience pay off for mineral sands bolter
PURE SPECULATION
Robin Bromby
January 20, 2007

WHEN this newspaper back in 2004 first sat up and took notice of an obscure junior Image Resources, you could still pick up its shares at well under 50c. Yesterday they closed at $2.50. Nearly all of its rise has come since September.
The big event that made the difference was the extraordinary mineral sands find on its two project areas at Cooljarloo in Western Australia. One intersection of 4m contained 49 per cent heavy minerals.
Having paused around $2, Image was off again this week on news it had applied for another 1100sqkm in the area.

The thing to know about Image is that its exploration director, George Sakalidis, doesn't apply for anything until he's fairly certain there's a compelling target. He and the others who floated Image had, over 20 years, put together an aeromagnetic database and used this to peg tenements that showed all the right signs. Drilling at Image's Cooljarloo projects has so far covered 15km of strike at one. There's another 80km of strike to go there and a further 20km to be drilled at the other.

The talk until now has been that either Ticor or Iluka Resources would make an offer for the project to provide added (and high-grade) feedstock for their own nearby mining operations, and there have been discussions. But Image, in view of what it is turning up, now says the resource is getting to the size where it is on the radar of both Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

All this excitement has obscured the fact that Image was originally a nickel play - and still is. It plans to float off its wholly owned areas in the Forrestania region, but the parent will keep the various joint ventures.

At Emu Lake, for example, partner Jubilee Mines has hit 11 high-grade intersections of more than 3 per cent nickel, with one of 6.2 per cent over 2m. Jubilee is expected to want to develop Emu Lake, giving Image a 30 per cent stake in the operation. The junior also has nickel joint ventures where Troy Resources and Westonia Mines are picking up all the exploration spending. In November, Mincor Resources joined the group financing work on Image properties.

Gavin Wendt of Fat Prophets, who has long recommended the stock, says these nickel projects are not being factored into the price, so great is the frenzy about Cooljarloo.