EL 9964 Depot Creek Victoria River Region, NT Annual Report on Exploration Activities Year two of tenure Period ending 20 May 2004

Abstract

EL 9964 was granted to Ashton Mining Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group, on 21 May 2002. Rio Tinto was at that time in negotiation with Gravity Capital Limited concerning the deployment of the Falcon(tm) airborne gravity gradiometer system over Rio Tinto's diamond tenements in northern Australia. Diamond Mines Australia Pty Ltd entered an agreement with Rio Tinto Exploration, concerning the diamond and base metal exploration over Rio Tinto-controlled tenements in the Northern Territory. On the basis of these agreements, Gravity (on behalf of DMA) commenced diamond exploration in the Northern Territory during July 2003. discovery. Gravity is managing all exploration for DMA. The flying program carried out in 2003 was focussed on areas of strongly anomalous diamond indicator mineral sampling results, obtained from Rio Tinto and surveys were conducted in the McArthur, Hodgson and Arnhem Land regions of the NT as well is in the Victoria River region which is the general locality of EL 9964. EL9964 was not covered in the Victoria River survey, the closest flying being at Tee Dee Hill some 90 kilometres to the northwest. There was no coverage of EL9964. While the principal target in the area is diamonds, some interest was also directed toward base metal deposits.