Lincoln Minerals

The new drilling program begins...

On November 23, Lincoln Minerals Limited, an Australian company with a portfolio of quality iron ore, uranium, vanadium, nickel-cobalt, lead-zinc-copper-silver and gold projects in Indonesia and the Gawler Craton in South Australia, announced the results of their Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Just days before this took place, IRJ caught up with Doctor Allan John Parker, Managing Director of Lincoln Minerals, to hear about a pivotal topic set for discussion at the AGM: the iron ore resource drilling on their flagship project—that started two days after the AGM and will continue into the New Year.

Today, IRJ takes a closer look at Gum Flat; Lincoln’s exciting principle project, the resource drilling program planned, and the other gems in the Lincoln portfolio.

The Gum Flat Project

Lincoln’s Gum Flat Project lies 20 kilometres from Port Lincoln and has a highway and railway line close by.

It is a joint venture with Mineral Enterprises Australia, a subsidiary of Mineral Enterprises Limited (“MEL”), an iron ore mining company based out of Bangalore, India. Mineral Enterprises exports an estimated three million tonnes of haematite fines to China each year and has a 40 per cent interest in the Gum Flat project.

“Today we have so far proved up to an inferred resource of about 55 million tonnes of magnetite iron ore. In addition to that, we have just over half a million tonnes of direct shipping haematite iron ore. That’s grading between 55 and 56 per cent iron with a reasonably high loss on ignition,” Parker says.

“This means that if you calcine it the grade goes up to 59 per cent. That does have about 0.4 per cent phosphorous which is a bit of a negative. But nevertheless, one of our neighbours is actually selling almost identical iron ore which has very high phosphorous so it is a saleable product. That haematite is within a larger haematite iron formation inferred resource, which is around two and a half million tonnes—averaging between 45 and 55 per cent iron.”

With this wealth of proven resources accounted for, Parker says that the company believes there is at least another 100 million tonnes of magnetite iron ore waiting to be drilled, which makes up the exploration target.

“We also have exploration targets for the haematite which are somewhere between two and 10 million tonnes, depending on what grade we might cut off at,” he continues.

“We’re doing a scoping study which is to work out the optimum parameters for processing and grinding, both the magnetite and the haematite. That’s in progress at the moment. We’re also just about to start a drilling program. That should begin next week [the last week in November]. The aim of that drilling program is to increase our resources and get core for detailed metallurgical test work. We’ll be drilling holes inside and outside the areas we have already drilled. That’s really aimed at improving the resource base.”

Gum Flat is not the only stellar project in Lincoln’s portfolio today.

The Wilcherry Project and beyond

Wilcherry, a uranium prospect within the uranium-rich southern Gawler Craton, may have only undergone limited drilling, but it stretches over five hectares in size and is open to the north and south.

“All of the drill holes within that area have intersected uranium grading within 0.01 and 0.07 per cent uranium. That’s quite interesting because 0.07 per cent is an economic grade,” Parker says.

“We’ve already done a preliminary scoping study on that and demonstrated that with an agitated acid leach we can get between 35 and 40 per cent of the uranium out with quite low acid consumption.”

Lincoln has already done a detailed vegetation sampling program to identify areas which could be suitable for drilling early in the New Year to extend Wilcherry. The target area is now over 2.5 kilometres long.

“The project is progressing and we have a couple of other uranium projects on Eyre Peninsula as well. One is Kimba Gap. At the moment we haven’t done any drilling there but we do have a vegetation anomaly which is quite interesting. We’ve also got up to one per cent uranium in outcrop near Tumby Bay, which is on Southern Eyre Peninsula,” Parker says.

“That occurs as small pods but we’re certainly going to follow that up. Uranium is still quite interesting and an important part of our exploration program.”

The Eyre Peninsula is home to many of Lincoln’s iron ore deposits and prospects.

“Middleback Range is an old iron ore mining area, and still currently mining something to the order of six to eight million tonnes of iron ore each year despite being active for over 100 years,” Parker says.

“Over the rest of the Southern and Eastern Peninsula there’s probably exploration targets for well over five billion tonnes of iron ore, so there’s large potential there. In association with the iron, there is local vanadium mineralisation and Lincoln has identified a prospect with up to 0.5 per cent vanadium pentoxide.”

Then there is Desa Mirah, a small iron ore project in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

“It’s only a few tens of thousands of tonnes. It’s high grade.we’re getting up to 68 per cent iron.but it’s only very small. At the moment we’re still negotiating an agreement with the landowner to be able to extract that—but we’re certainly aiming to get it out of the ground and ship it out, because that will give us a good short-term cash flow,” Parker says.

“We have formed a subsidiary company: Lincoln Asia-Pacific Limited. At the moment we’re looking at other projects in Indonesia in general, some in Kalimantan, and some in other areas. The aim is to enlarge our presence in Indonesia. We’re very keen on working there and we certainly think that there are some very interesting opportunities there in addition to the iron ore. Desa Mirah is a stepping stone that has opened up some doors for us, and could lead to bigger and better things.”

Lincoln Minerals tomorrow

Parker says that in the medium-term, Lincoln seeks to work more on the uranium at Wilcherry, vanadium at White Flat and identify resources there. In the short term, the company remains firmly focused on the iron ore exploration and resource drilling program at Gum Flat.

“We’re undertaking a drilling program there focusing on increasing the magnetite resource, and also increasing the direct shipping haematite resource. If we can get that to something in the order of two million tonnes plus, we can start looking at a mining operation,” Parker says.

“It may be only small but at least it gives us the opportunity to start. That would be our first serious mining project in South Australia. At the same time as we progress in South Australia we will forge ahead in Indonesia and pursue opportunities there in regard to iron, manganese, copper and gold.”

Lincoln Minerals is ready to make this start. The company’s enviable portfolio, solid strategic goals and established joint ventures suggest that this is certainly a mining company to keep an eye on.

www.lincolnminerals.com.au

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