Cootamundra Manganese Project
New South Wales

Cootamundra is located in New South Wales, 120 kms northwest of Canberra and 385 kms south west of Sydney. View a 3D map of the Cootamundra Project.

The Cootamundra Project area sits in the Lachlan Fold Belt, which is a well-endowed porphyry Cu-Au belt, hosting a number of mines, such as North Parkes, Cowal, Copperhill, Temora and Cadia-Ridgeway.

There are a number of manganese occurrences and historical mine workings on Alloy’s 100% owned tenements EL7457 and EL7518 that sit in close proximity to the Main Southern Railway Line (see figure "Cootamundra Project Tenements"). The historical mine workings and mineral occurrences on these tenements are:

• Cullinga – where there are 11 documented manganese occurrences,
• Cootamundra – where there are 4 documented manganese occurrences,
• Congou, and
• Jindalee.

Cootamundra Prospect

The Cootamundra prospect is located at the edge of town and very close to infrastructure to support mining and transport operations.

The prospect consists of several parallel, linear zones of Mn mineralisation about 1 to 3 m wide associated with BIF and siltstone contacts. There are some historical mine workings along one of these trends at the top of a hill, but the other trends have not been mined in the past. All samples collected during the December 2010 quarter had anomalous Mn and several samples contained >40% Mn.

The overall length of the mapped known mineralisation zone at Cootamundra is 550 m. The Cootamundra Mn trends have the potential to continue to the south, and there may be possible repetition of this mineralised zone to the north.

Congou Prospect

The Congou Mn occurrences are to the north and along strike of the Reef Hill gold deposits. At Congou, pods of high grade Mn mineralisation are associated with iron quartzite / BIF and siltstone contacts. These occurrences are limited to subcrop areas and there is potential that there could be more extensive zones of Mn mineralisation in the area just below the regolith cover.

The Congou historical mine workings occur within the prospect area, where a shaft was sunk to 15m. A sample of manganese from a depth of 12 metres on the hanging wall assayed at 51% Mn, and at the base of the shaft a bulk sample averaged 42.1% Mn. Along the surface the deposit has been worked for a length of 15m, with width up to 2m. A total of 237t @ 42% Mn was mined from these deposits.

The Company anticipates that Mn target trenching and drilling will begin in the first quarter of 2011, pending land access and approvals.

Cullinga Prospect

At the Cullinga Prospect, Mn mineralisation occurs within a very thick quartzite to BIF unit and also in a laminated siltstone with interlayer’s of barren siltstone and iron-manganese rich siltstone layers.

The Mn mineralisation hosted within the BIF can be high grade, with the mapped zones in the order of 1 to 2 m thick. The Mn within the laminated siltstone is generally low grade, and more dominated by Fe. However, one sample returned 29.7% Mn, which shows that this thick and extensive (>1.5 km long) siltstone unit has potential for hosting significant Mn mineralisation at Cullinga or elsewhere in the district.

Other Prospects

Both Fe and Mn mineralisation were found at the Jindalee and the new Ingolds prospect during mapping.

Recent Results:

For more information including geophysical IP surveying results, figures and tables, please see:

• December 2010 Quarterly Activities Report
• ASX Release dated 3 December 2010

 

Future Work

The Company will begin the approvals process for trenching and drilling Mn targets at the Cootamundra Project, and additional IP surveying will be carried out at the Congou prospect in January. It is anticipated that Mn target trenching and drilling will occur in the first quarter of 2011, pending land access and approvals.