4 December 2007
MIS ASX ANNOUNCEMENT
MIDWEST ACCELERATES MAJOR DRILLING PROGRAM AT WELD RANGE
Iron ore producer, Midwest Corporation Limited (Midwest ASX:MIS) today
announced the immediate commencement of an $11 million accelerated drilling
program at Weld
Range.
This follows West Australian Government approval of a Vegetation Clearance
Permit for 40 ha at the Madoonga and Beebyn project areas.
The company has already confirmed 114Mt of haematite Mineral Resources
(JORC) at Weld Range
and the 40,000 metre drilling program is aimed at increasing Midwest’s
JORC Mineral Resources.
Midwest Corporation Chief Executive Officer Bryan Oliver said the
company had successfully secured a fleet of drill rigs to carry out the
exploration program.
“The accelerated drilling program will see a build up to four
Reverse Circulation (RC) and four Diamond Core drill rigs to carry out RC
drilling and 40 Diamond Core drill holes,” Mr Oliver said.
“Importantly, the timing of this Government approval allows Midwest to stay on track to complete its Pre-Feasibility
Study by September 2008, as previously announced.
“Midwest’s Weld Range
drilling program will be the largest the company has undertaken.”
The significant drilling campaign will be completed between December
2007 and August 2008 as follows:
- Madoonga (W14, W25) and Beebyn (W7, W8, W9, W10, W11, W12) –
approximately 24,000 m RC drilling between December 2007 and June 2008
- North East Extension (W38, W39, W40) – approximately 2,400m
RC drilling in February 2008
- Beebyn North (W30, W31, W45) – approximately 2,400m RC
drilling from April to June 2008. This has been included in the drilling
program as a result of encouraging drill results recently announced
- North and Other (Limestone Well, W34, W35, W36, W41, W42, W43)
– approximately 4,300m RC drilling from March to June 2008
- Wilgie Mia North (Hampton Hill Mining JV W6, W20) –
approximately 4,700m RC drilling from April to June 2008
- Hampton Hill Mining JV (W17, W19) – approximately 2,600m RC
drilling from May to August 2008.
In addition, Midwest is currently drilling a potential haematite project
at Jack
Hills
with an initial Mineral Resource estimate expected to be confirmed this month.
Midwest has a DSO project in production at Koolanooka with 1Mt per annum
installed capacity with all production on secured export contracts to China.
Other projects in the Midwest region include prospective tenements at
Koolanooka (magnetite) and continuing field work in Robinson Range (haematite),
which is showing promising results.
Midwest is working with China-backed infrastructure company Yilgarn on a
proposal to provide rail and port infrastructure to service all the iron ore
sites in the Mid West region.
#
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