Mount Magnet South NL acquired the Kirkalocka Project located 70 kms south of Mt Magnet from Equigold Limited in April 2008.

Prior to Equigold acquiring this Project in 2001 both CRAE and Sons of Gwalia explored the area and identified considerable gold mineralisation at Curara Well. The initial exploration target size was a 4.5 x 0.5km >0.1g/t Au anomaly coincident with secondary splays off a major shear zone (with the shear zone defined by magnetic data).

In 2002 Equigold calculated a measured resource for Curara Well including nearby laterites totalling 7.8Mt @ 1.9g/t Au for 473,000 ounces. The mining reserve totalled 5.1Mt @ 1.8g/t Au for 301,600 ounces. A feasibility study was immediately carried out by Equigold leading to the construction and commissioning of the Kirkalocka operation in 2002.

Mining commenced in October 2002 and ceased 3 years later. Equigold mined a total of 5.6Mt at 1.62g/t Au for 294,000 contained ounces. The pit measures 505m west to east and 470m north south and around 200m deep. In November 2005 Equigold calculated a remnant measured resource totalling 2.1Mt @ 2.05g/t Au for 140,000 ounces.

Milling of the run of mine and fine ore stockpiles ceased late August 2008 with the recovered gold from the Project exceeding 300,000oz.


Regional Geology

The Curara Well ore body is located at Kirkalocka, on the eastern margin of the Murchison granite-greenstone province and specifically at the southern end of the Wydgee - Meekatharra Greenstone Belt (Figure 1). There is limited outcrop over the area as most of the area is covered by tertiary sediments – up to 30m of cover has been recorded from historical drilling. In the vicinity of the Project, the greenstone belt varies in thickness from 2.0 to 5.5 kilometres in width. The belt is elongate and trends in a north south direction. Lithologies of the Luke Creek Group which include the Windanning, Gabanintha, Golconda and Murrouli Basalt are present. These formations include felsic and mafic volcanics and banded iron lithologies. Felsic intrusives are also observed close to the belt boundaries. The orientation of these rocks is roughly parallel to the marginal contacts. In this region, the belt has undergone contact metamorphism to greenschist-amphibolite facies. The Mt. Magnet Shear runs parallel to the eastern margin along the length of the belt.

Local Geology

Curara Well Pit is hosted in tonalite and amphibolite after basalt that strikes north/northwest with variable dips ranging from 50° to 70° to the east. Barren, narrow felsic intrusives run parallel to stratigraphy and in places cross cut the north/northwest metamorphic foliation in an east west orientation. The vast majority of gold mineralisation occurs in the tonalite and amphibolites where increased gold grades are observed proximal to these felsic intrusives. Gold mineralisation plunges to the northeast ranging from 50° to 75°

The tonalite is characterized by coarse feldspar laths in a fine grained mafic groundmass (Ford 1995, Berridge 2004). Gold is commonly associated with quartz veining or strong alteration selvedges characterised by silica, sericite, chlorite with pyrite and minor pyrrhotite proximal to felsic intrusive. Discrete lenses up to 20m in width form predominantly along the tonalite contacts and parallel to the felsic intrusives that converge to the south. The majority of the mineralisation is concentrated toward this southern “keel” position and is still open at depth. The northern extensions of the tonalite and felsic intrusives are open.

The metamorphosed and altered basalt makes up the bulk of the eastern country rock hosting higher grade gold mineralisation in a series of north easterly steeply plunging (55°-75°) stacked lenses in a shear zone. Bulk rock geochemistry carried out by Ford (1995) showed the basalt to be almost andesitic in composition with 57-61 wt% SiO2 and 2.5 – 4.6 wt% MgO. Gold mineralisation occurs with intense biotite, amphibole, quartz and fine disseminated sulfide (primarily pyrite) alteration. Strong siliceous selvedges and increasing gold grades are located proximal to the felsic intrusives that trend NNW and are in some places crosscutting.

Gold mineralisation follows the general dip of the foliation and is also present in late stage flat lying narrow cross-cutting quartz veins dipping at 30° to the east. Coarse visible gold is present with these quartz veins. Widths of these lenses vary from 2m up to 30m.

Figure 1: Geological interpretation of the north-west trending tonalite-mafic contact zone based on drill hole information generated by CRAE, SOG et al. (Source: Equigold NL 2002 Combined Annual Technical Report)

Additional information including the most recent exploration results can be found in the Company’s ASX announcements at the Investor Centre.