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BARRA SECURES OPTION TO BITTER BORE COBALT PROJECT
Barra Resources Limited (ASX:BAR) (“Barra” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the securing of an option to purchase the Bitter Bore Cobalt Project located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The Project comprises a contiguous package of tenements 70km northwest of Kalgoorlie, W.A. (Figure 1). The tenements have the potential to host significant deposits of cobalt.
The Project covers a portion of the Siberia komatiite ultramafic unit along the western limb of the Goongarrie – Mt Pleasant anticline in the Ora Banda domain of the Kalgoorlie terrain and located along strike to the northwest of the well-known Cawse nickel-cobalt operation. Historically, this area was targeted and mined primarily for nickel with cobalt as a by-product.
The Project area is known to host four main types of mineralisation including oxide ores of limonite, smectite, talc, and siliceous-cobalt (SICO). SICO mineralisation, which occurs as 1 metre to 6 metre thick sub-horizontal layers in the upper 20 metres of the weathering profile, is characterised by dark blue to black siliceous rock with abundant cobalt-rich manganese oxides which carry grades from 0.3% to 7% cobalt in the rock mass (Source: TNG Limited website).
Widespread cobalt mineralisation has been defined within the Bitter Bore Cobalt Project, including high grade cobalt intersections of 12m @ 0.282% from 12 metres below surface, 10m @ 0.214% Co from 18 metres below surface, 2m @ 0.191 % Co from 20 metres below surface and 2m @ 0.149 % Co from 10 metres below surface. (Source: Centaur Mining and Exploration Annual Report 2000).
Adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Project area, Western Mining Corporation (WMC) historically mined SICO type mineralisation at the Linger and Die Deposit in the late 1970’s primarily for its cobalt content. WMC mined 62,500 tonnes grading 1.22% nickel and 0.34 % cobalt, 3.4% manganese and 45% silica (Source: DMP WAMEX).
The Company will be specifically investigating the cobalt-manganese relationship throughout the project area. The cobalt-manganese relationship is important as it is the same relationship that exists at the Company’s 50% owned Mt Thirsty Cobalt Project, 20km northwest of Norseman in W.A. The Mt Thirsty Joint Venture (MTJV) has recently commenced a Scoping Study on the Mt Thirsty Cobalt Project focusing specifically on extracting cobalt from the manganese minerals within the Mt Thirsty Cobalt Deposit via agitated leaching using sulphur dioxide (SO2) at atmospheric pressure and low temperature (<50oC).
Barra will pay Zetek Resources Pty Ltd and Western Resources Pty Ltd the sum of $10,000 for a 6 month option to investigate the tenements for its potential to host economically extractable cobalt mineralisation. Barra can exercise the option any time within the next 6 months to acquire a 100% interest in the tenements for $150,000 cash plus a 1% Net Smelter Royalty on all minerals mined from the tenements.
Gary Berrell
Chairman & CEO
Barra Resources Limited