australasian secures expansion to balmoral

AUSTRALASIAN SECURES EXPANSION TO BALMORAL
SOUTH PROJECT AREA
KEY POINT
• Development area expanded for Balmoral South Iron Ore Project (Australia) to underpin planned 1 billion tonne mining operation Australasian Resources Limited (“Australasian” or “the Company”) has concluded a key
change to its existing agreement with Mineralogy Pty Ltd (“Mineralogy”) that results in an expansion to the mining, processing and infrastructure areas required to develop its worldclass Balmoral South Iron Ore Project, located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The expansion does not increase the Company’s existing rights to mine one billion tonnes of iron ore from the project, however provides further opportunity to optimise the economics and planned layout of the development.
SUMMARY
Australasian concluded agreements with Mineralogy in early 2007 to acquire International Minerals Pty Ltd (“IM”) which holds the right to mine 1 billion tonnes within the southern block of the Balmoral project area.
The agreement included the acquisition of a Sublease agreement between IM and Mineralogy dated 21 November 2001 and a Deed of Acknowledgement and Variation of Sublease agreement dated 3 August 2006 that outlined the following two areas for development of the 1 billion tonne project:
• Project Area – designated for mining
• Site Area – designated for key process and operational infrastructure
Following a review of project requirements, IM obtained an expansion to these areas:
• To further optimise the current Ore Reserve. Although the current Project Area offered the potential to obtain 1,000 million tonnes (“Mt”) of Ore Reserves, the expanded Project Area provides opportunity to secure shallower, lower cost Ore Reserves to the south. The current Ore Reserve of 680 Mt is part of an overall
Mineral Resource estimate of 1,116 Mt.
• To provide additional area to accommodate key infrastructure and support IM’s environmental approvals application to the Environmental Protection Authority
(“EPA”). The Department of Environment and Conservation has set the level of assessment for the Balmoral South Iron Ore Project at Public Environmental Review

IM agreed the following outcomes with Mineralogy:
1. The Project Area and Site Area are both expanded to the new boundaries shown in Figure 1.
2. All existing contractual obligations pertaining to the Project Area and Site Area are extended to the expanded areas as shown on Figure 1.
3. All obligations relating to the other agreements between International Minerals and Mineralogy remain unchanged.
The changes represent an excellent outcome for the Company as it continues working towards the completion of key studies with entities associated with its major partner, Shougang Corporation.
Further information can be obtained from Andrew Caruso on +61 8 9322 2288.
Yours faithfully