aru projects update

Thought I would put together a summary as far as my knowledge extends on ARU's project status with a bit of crystal ball gazing added in. I'm sure I don't have all the info so would appreciate anyone filling in the gaps.

I'll try to update this at semi regular intervals if others find it useful.

**Frances Ck Gold**

Drilling primarily in 2004 at Frances Ck Gold prospect consisted of two drilling targets Golden Slips and Golden Honcho.
This was complete in Aug 2004. Interesting to note the nothing has been mentioned since regarding Frances Ck Gold even though the drilling campaign was successful (See ARU web site for details) This would lead me to believe that Frances Ck is one of the assets being looked at to sell off while ARU concentrates on Nolans/Kurinelli and other uranium prospects. Would make sense to sell their interest to the Burinside Joint venture currently drilling Pine Ck (see Mt Porter gold comments).

From asx release.

"Results from the first 13 holes were released on 5 August and included intercepts of 4
metres at 47.5 g/t Au from 15 metres in FCRC017 at Golden Slips and 2 metres at 11.6
g/t Au in FCRC027 at Golden Honcho."


**Frances Ck Iron Ore Royalties**

ARU did a deal with Territory Iron in Nov 2003 to allow TFE to develop the Frances Ck Iron ore deposit. Excerpt as follows - interesting to note another 375k royalty payment is due this October!

"Under the agreement Territory acquires the iron ore rights by payment of a royalty per tonne of iron ore mined from the tenements. The initial royalty rates are $1.30 per tonne of lump ore and $1.00 per tonne of fines. Territory has made a non refundable advance royalty payment of $375,000 and is contracted to make a further advance payment of $375,000 upon the earlier of the first shipment of ore or two years from 31 October 2003"

Territory Iron (TFE) have been drilling at Frances ck last quarter and results are promising. There's still some way to go before they would start producing, usual PER and BFS etc... so don't expect cash royalties to start flowing for at least 12-18 months if its a goer. The 375k will be useful though.

From last TFE quarterley - note they are spending $9mil over 2 years drilling in the area

"Currently Territory Iron is on target to achieve its objective of drilling out the identified
tonnes to an Indicated Resource status ahead of resource modelling and mine planning
studies at the end of the year. It is anticipated that over 20,000 meters of drilling will be
completed in 2005."

You'd have to think there is little downside here for ARU, free carried with royalties to come if its a goer.


**Mt Porter Gold**

ARU have an identified resource here

"The total contained gold is 34,200 ounces. The total identified mineral resource using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off is 878,000 tonnes at 1.9 g/t Au or 53,100 ounces."

Couple of interesting points there is a PER underway that was due in June...

From September 2004 Quarterly

"The Northern Territory Minister for the Environment and Heritage has determined that the proposal will be assessed at the level of a Public Environmental Report (PER). Guidelines for the PER have been issued. A Consultant has been commissioned to undertake the PER which is not expected to be completed until the June quarter 2005."


Like Frances Ck we haven't heard anything about this for sometime, I would again suspect (no fact to back it up) that this may be a sitter to be sold to the Burnside Joint Venture ( Northern Gold NL 50% and Harmony Gold Mining Company 50%).

The Burnside JV have had a successful drilling campaign and owns the mothballed union reefs mill so it would be a bit of a no brainer for them to take ARU's Frances Ck and Mt porter assets to add to the 2 million oz they have identified already.

This from Northern Golds last quarterly

"The Burnside JV project is currently at an advanced development stage, with drilling and evaluation work focusing on the conversion of resources to reserves. Capital requirements for production commencement are expected to be relatively low given the high-quality Union Reefs plant and established infrastructure in the Burnside JV tenement area."


**Lagoon Ck Uranium**

Well what can I say that hasn't already been said. With the Laramide JV what we are looking for in the near term 1-2 months are the results of the aerial mag survey, identifying of drill targets and drilling. The initial payment to ARU from
Laramide will help beef up their cash buffer along with the TFE payment.
The question is how much drilling if any can be done before the wet season arrives?? It may be difficult to secure a rig and if that is the case we maybe waiting till may next year to get drilling.


**Kurinelli Gold**

This seems to be a big focus for ARU along with Nolans. Its interesting they have put it ahead of their proven drilling at Mt Porter and Frances Ck, I would view that as significant.

The last quarterly stated that another round of soil sampling will happen in September of which when analysed with the previous soil sampling programs will identify drilling targets. Again it will be interesting to see if they can do any drilling before the wet season, otherwise we'll be waiting till next year on this one too. The soil sampling results have shown some of the best results for Gold anomaly’s anywhere in australia, this could potentially be an elephant in waiting.


**Nolans Bore**

Again I don't want to regurgitate what has already been said, valuation wise, Gerry's calculations from a week back said it all, its an elephant.
Things to look out for in the near future are the final RC drill result in the next week or so. Then the core drilling results in October and the big one... the re-estimate of resource based on the 05 drilling, which in my guess may be in the next quarterly. bets are on if its going to be close to 3* the previous resource calcs.

Also we should have the metallurgic test results within I would think the next 1-2 months. Assuming the metallurgic testing and resource calc come out positive, then we should be moving to PER and BFS stages quite quickly , perhaps before the end of this year??


**Yalyirimbi**

ARU's appliction for an exploration permit is pending, I'd think looking at the length of time others have taken ie DYL at Napperby then that permit should come through pretty soon.

The interesting thing here is what their exploration strategy will be, will they do more rock sampling or do an aerial mag survey similar to Laramide at Lagoon Ck. They could then wrap up a number of their other exploration blocks into this survey ie Jervois and Mt Lucy although at the moment the Urainum focus is on Yalyirimbi and Lagoon Ck

Also interesting to ponder the nearby drilling of DYL at Napperby (which has just been completed) it would make sense to me if DYL are going to move forward at Napperby to be talking seriously to ARU, who will likely have a plant at nearby nolans bore. Any exploration success in Yalyirimbi would also feed into a plant at Nolans I would think.
Positive drill results for DYL may assist ARU as Yalyirimbi contains much of the area surrounding DYL's Napperby drilling campaign.


**Jervios and other projects**

As reported in the last quarterly a vanadium rich and titanium outcrop was identified. As stated in the quarterly "Arafura will undertake further investigation by way of magnetic survey and possibly drilling to assess the extent of the mineralization." So we wait with interest on this one.

There other exploration areas ie Hammer Hill/Coronet Hill/Supplejack / Elkedra all of which have received no attention that I know of yet. It'll be interesting to see with Uranium being the metal of the moment weather some of these areas will receive attention for Uranium exploration.