Thursday, 27 March 2008AUSTRALASIAN Resources is confident it...

Thursday, 27 March 2008

AUSTRALASIAN Resources is confident it will acquire more tenements in the Pilbara from Clive Palmer’s private company, Mineralogy, and expects the deal to be finalised in the near future.

The company, which is carrying out a feasibility study on its Balmoral South magnetite project, said it was considering the impact the additional tonnes would have on its numbers to get the magnetite play up and running.

As a result, Australasian has pushed out its feasibility study due date to mid-April, but was quick to say this would not impact its deal with Shougang Steel over the project.

Australasian did not say how much magnetite iron ore it was hoping to add to the existing resources at Balmoral South, which has an ore reserve of 680 million tonnes, part of an overall mineral resource estimate of 1.1 billion tonnes.

The company added recent talks with Shougang had “confirmed the company’s commitment” to Balmoral South, with discussions underway about the site of a proposed pellet plant in China.

Australasian expects first high-grade concentrate from Balmoral South in 2010, to be followed in 2011 by pellet production and hot briquetted iron (HBI) soon after.

Last year Australasian acquired International Minerals, which holds the right to mine 1Bt in the southern block of the Balmoral project, from Mineralogy.

Chinese company Shougang is working towards a 50% share in the Balmoral project and holds a 12.8% stake in Australasian.

Shares in Australasian were last trading at $1.60, up 9c or almost 6% this morning.