ORD RIVER RESOURCES LIMITED - ASX: ORD

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Description

Under new leadership ORD is embarking on a new growth strategy that will deliver shareholder value through focused exploration and development of existing and new projects in Australia and overseas. ORD is closely working with its Chinese partner and its single largest shareholder China Nonferrous Metal Group in creating value for all shareholders.

Laos Projects

ORD has identified undeveloped bauxite resources on the Bolaven Plateau, Southern Laos, potentially one of the world’s largest. Initial exploration indicates that the Laos bauxite deposits may have the potential to support an industry, as large as Western Australia’s Darling Ranges’ deposits which produce 14% of the world’s alumina. ORD has formed a company in Laos with China Nonferrous Metals International Mining Co., Ltd (CNMIM) to develop the Bolaven Plateau bauxite deposits in joint venture with local Lao companies. ORD currently has interests in tenements over an area of 727 km2 on the Bolaven Plateau. Negotiations are in progress to secure additional tenements in the area. The bauxite potential, in the areas which are of interest to ORD, is estimated to be up to 2-2.5 billion tonnes. Over a quarter of that potential lies within tenements in which ORD and CNMIM have interests, or which are currently under negotiation. With that potential, ORD estimates an annual production of up to 20 mtpa (million tonnes per annum) of bauxite from the Bolaven Plateau is possible, which may be refined to 5-7 mtpa of alumina.

Suplejack Project

The Suplejack gold project is located approximately 650 km north-west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, approximately 80 km north of the Tanami mine and 40 km north of the Groundrush mine. Heritage surveys have been completed allowing access to the area of the former EL 24167 and an extensive broad spaced soil sampling program is now planned. This work is to test the extensive spread of soil, drainage and rock chip anomalies that has been obtained over a distance of approximately 25 km along the Old 8 Mile Fault. This fault intersects the highly prospective Dead Bullock Formation and is overlain by a thin cover of Supplejack Sandstone, Antrim Volcanics and possibly some Nanny Goat Volcanics. All of these units except for the Antrim Volcanics are known to contain gold mineralisation within the tenement area. Sampling work has been postponed at present pending resolution of additional permitting requirements which are expected to be resolved in the near future. ORD interprets that there is over 200 km strike length of untested or undertested structures that are often associated with gold anomalies. Sufficient resource finds are expected in the near future to begin feasibility studies. After proving sufficient resources ORD plans to have a central treatment plant that will process ore from a series of small to medium sized deposits, similar in nature to the Tanami mine, where over 40 open pits have contributed ore to the central processing plant.

Copper Flats

In 2006, ORD made a very significant discovery of very high grade copper from rock chip samples at its Copper Flats project. Rock chip samples taken in November 2006 from various locations at the tenements contain percentages up to 42.5% copper. The average of seven rock chip samples over a 60 metre interval was 24.49% copper. The zone of mineralisation is approximately 1,500 m by 1,000 m and open in all directions. The thicker parts of the zone are between 3 m to 8 m, with a lateral extend of approximately 500 m by 1,000 m. The mineralisation is overlaid by a thin overburden layer, often less than four metres. ORD has also identified additional outcropping mineralisation over 450 m in an area 500 m west of the above-mentioned mineralisation. The company conducted a drilling program in mid-2007 to determine the grade and commercial potential of the deposits.

WEST WYALONG PROJECT

The Company applied for an exploration licence (ELA 3712) to explore for gold in the Central NSW. The approval for grant of a licence has been given and the agreement for the licence has been signed by the Company and is awaiting NSW Department of Mining and Petroleum to sign. The Gilmore Suture in NSW is a locus for numerous gold deposits, ranging from quartz vein in sediments style to porphyry gold deposits. The close association with granite intrusive indicates that these deposits in domain are likely to belong to the intrusion related gold deposits class.

The Company is targeting the Intrusion Related Gold (IRG), a concept which was pushed by junior explorers in Alaska and Yukon in the 1990’s to give an enhanced sense of coherency and prospectivity to widely spread recognized mineralisation in the region. It was recognized that gold occurred in a series of discrete districts and belts and that gold deposits formed at different points in the tectono-magmatic evolution of a collisional orogen.

Gold deposits of the IRG class manifest themselves in a range of styles and types related to depth of exposure and primary regional rock types that include:

• Shear-zone hosted “orogenic lode” style deposits
• Intrusion-related gold with diverse mineralisation styles
• Epithermal gold.

It has also been recognized that major mineralisation centres are often widely separated and as a consequence there is a need initially to examine the prospectivity of a large region to define the most productive centres.

The formal or published “definition” of this class of gold deposit is relatively recent and exploration for them as a discrete class has only been undertaken over about the last 15 years world wide. By analogy with North American IRG provinces, such settings have potential for large tonnage bulk mineable gold deposits (eg Pogo, Fort Knox, Donlin Creek etc).

The Central Lachlan Fold Belt was chosen for exploration for IRG deposits on the basis of its similar tectonic setting, intrusive history and metallogenic association (gold-tintungsten-molybdenum-arsenic-bismuth). In comparison with the East Lachlan Fold Belt, the tin - tungsten belt target in the Central Lachlan has only had limited modern systematic exploration appropriate for discovery of the IRG class of deposit. Much of the previous exploration has been focussed on tin and tungsten exploration, not gold, a feature also notable in the Tintina Gold Province.

Exploration for gold has essentially been limited to the immediate site of known old workings withlittle consideration given to the wider geological setting that hosts them. In the Central Lachlan a number of potential target sites are weathered to some depth and covered with a veneer of soil or recent transported regolith that limits bedrock exposure and reduces the effectiveness of much early geochemical exploration. Consequently assessment requires modern,low detection level, multi-element geochemical exploration strategies and modern high resolution geophysics to effectively explore the tenement area under shallow cover or deep weathering.

Mine For

gold, bauxite, copper

Location of operation(s)

Laos, Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales

Address

Level 5, 71 Macquarie St
SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA

Phone

(61) 420 318 004

Email

Website

http://www.ord.com.au/

Last Updated

2/3/2011