Fourth Annual Report ML 29494 2016 Reporting Period from 21 December 2015 to 20 December 2016

Abstract

Mining work at the mine site in the 2016 reporting period commenced on the 23rd April 2016 and the program was completed on 10th July 2016. A fly camp was maintained on the old waste rock dump opposite the adit entrance to the mine for the period and was occupied 7 times for 6 nights at a time. Four day breaks were taken in Alice Springs to replenish fuel, water and food, repair equipment, box potential mineral specimens for transport and recover from the stresses of manual labour. Rain impeded access in May and time was spent at the Mud Tank zircon field. The core mine site activity in 2016 was focused on driving forward and wider in the Down Dip Drive mineralisation parallel to the anticlinal axis (See Plan 1). This known location of specimen production in the down dip tunnel parallel to the anticlinal axis, was not mined in 2015 due to a reduction in time available to miners. This was an important change in mining direction in 2016 as the Up Dip Drive in 2015 was demonstrating a fall in specimen quality and quantity with detrimental calcareous coatings over distorted azurite discs across 2 metres of the drive face. The Down Dip Drive was advanced 2.2 metres in 2016 across an average 5 metre working face. This involved 5 sequential cuts of an average horizontal distance of approx 0.44 metres comprising hammering out solid rock using a large electric jackhammer to create a vertical working face, removal of waste rock, undercutting of the mineralised area, sampling of specimens and removal of excess waste rock during specimen collecting. The Adit Drive was opened up towards the end of the mining campaign based on a reinterpretation of the geology in the Down Dip Drive. This work combined with the Down Dip Drive mining has changed the ore reserve estimates. A total of 25M3 was mined consisting of waste rock and hanging wall kaolinite containing azurite. The Project was visited by two NTG Geological Survey staff , Nigel Donnellan and Jay Carter in late June 2016