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The Jack Hills prospect was previously on a tenement held by Kingstream Resources. However, according to Mr Vagnoni, Kingstream “took its eyes off the ball” and the tenement lapsed. It was snapped up by a group associated with Bill Hitch which has subsequently agreed a purchase and royalty agreement with Murchison Metals. According to the terms of the deal the latter company will pay $500,000 by February 5 2005 and an ongoing royalty of 80 cents per tonne of ore mined.

Going back further in time, the Jack Hills area was explored by Itoh & Co in the late 1960s and later in 1969 by Murchison Minerals which conducted an extensive mapping and sampling program that included the drilling of three diamond and ten percussion holes.

In 1973 North extended the Murchison Minerals program by undertaking a detailed program that included 59 percussion holes and the construction of an underground adit for a bulk test.

Since then the large volume of data has been reprocessed by groups such as Kingstream Resources NL, Anglo Australian Minerals Ltd and others.

“However, with the then low price of iron ore and its ready availability from the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara Region with the established mines of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the area was not developed,” said Mr Vagnoni.

Jack Hills was paid for out of issue of shares in 2004. Unless CHM bought shares in the newly formed MMX, it has no right to Jack Hills.