Mountain creek

The Mountain Creek project, in the Northern Terrirory Gulf Country, is part of the Roper Bar iron ore province being situated north west of the new Roper Bar iron ore mine approximately 600 kilometres south east of Darwin. The project consists of two exploration leases, both owned by Western Desert Resources, covering a total of 714.47 square kilometres.

Mountain Creek Iron Ore Deposits to Compliment the Roper Bar Mine Resource Base

Western Desert Resources, a Northern Territory based mining company, is the owner of the adjacent Roper Bar iron ore mine that began production under the management of Thiess Australia in January 2014. During exploratory drilling within the Mountain Creek mining leases, a shallow flat lying extensive zone of direct shipping ore (DSO) mineralisation was discovered. The mineralisation is at least 300 metres along strike with a width of 250 metres and a thickness of two metres. The best intersection was found to be two metres grading at 60.9 iron. Lower grades have been intersected in other places and planning is currently underway for follow up drilling to take place in areas of high grade mineralisation. The Mountain Creek area is continuing to show potential that could eventually add value to the long term beneficiation of the nearby Roper Bar iron ore mine.

Western Desert Resources Established in 2006

Western Desert Resources was founded in 2006 by a group of businessmen and geologists having long term connections with the Northern Territory, having worked together on gold prospects in the Tennant Creek area. It was floated as a publicly listed company in 2007and was intitially focused on uranium and gold prospects such as its Tennant Creek Rover joint venture with Australian resource company TNG. The company bought shares in Thor mining and obtained gold exploration licences for Spring Hill at Pine Creek south of Darwin. The discovery of a significant iron ore deposit at Roper Bar in the Gulf of Carpentaria region of the Northern Territory has been the company's biggest success story to date.

BHP Billiton Turned Back on Roper Bar Potential

Giant international mining company BHP Billiton had previously discovered iron ore near Roper River in the Northern Territory but decided the area was too remote to develop anything on a commercial basis. However, in 2008, Western Desert Resources charted a flight over the hematite outcrop and was impressed by what it saw. A feasibility study soon followed on how best to mine the iron ore in the area and get it to the Chinese market at the lowest possible price.

Exploratory examples were of sufficient quality to give the company confidence in its find and led to it consolodating eight tenements at Mountain Creek and Roper Bar. Further drilling confirmed substantial reserves of high grade iron ore at Roper Bar with continuing drilling taking place at Mountain Creek.

Western Desert Resources has commenced mining iron ore at Roper Bar and is looking forward to the Mountain Creek tenements adding to the mines resource, therefore increasing the value of the Roper Bar project. This will allow it to further capitalise on the growing demand for steel in China.