Annual exploration report Howley Tenement Group MLNs 809, 884-892, 993, 1000, 1027, 1053, 1062, 1149, MCNs 1014-1015, 1231-1232, 3422, 4299, 4860-4861 year ending 31 December 2003

Abstract

The Howley group of tenements is located approximately 140km SSE of Darwin, NT and is managed by Burnside Operations P/L as part of a larger tenement group all subject to the Burnside Joint Venture. The project comprises tenements that cover the southern sector of the Howley Anticline, a structure that hosts numerous historic gold mines and prospects. These include the important Cosmopolitan Howley mine and its satellites including the Phantom, Liberator, Chinese No. 1, Chinese No. 2, Chinese South and Big Howley. Following an extended period of exploration and open pit mining by Dominion Mining, work was suspended in 1995 and the gold treatment plant and other infrastructure mothballed. Territory Goldfields N.L. acquired the Howley group tenements in late 1994 and independently conducted exploration programs along the Howley Line for several years. In April 2002 a joint venture was formed between Territory Goldfields NL and Buffalo Creek Mines that included the Howley group tenements, those surrounding the Brocks Creek treatment facility, and the facility itself. (Burnside JV) Since then the joint venture has made extensive improvements to the camp infrastructure at Cosmo and at Brocks Creek that form the support base for exploration in the region. Decline access was mined at the Zapopan deposit near the Brocks Creek facility in 2003 and a parcel of development ore was toll treated at the Union Reefs mill. Evaluation drilling programs were directed towards other prospects within the Burnside region to establish a gold resource base. During 2003 the joint venture conducted computer geological and resource modeling of the Cosmo Howley deposit. This model led to a proposal to test the depth extensions of the Cosmo Howley open pit mineralisation by RC and diamond core drilling. By year?s end a total of 344m of RC and 598.3m of core drilling had been completed. Only the results of the first RC hole were available at the time of reporting.