Mount Ridley wraps up promising WA iron sampling program

Mount Ridley Mines has wrapped up a detailed rock-chip sampling program at its 100 per cent-owned Weld Range West iron ore project in Western Australia’s Mid West region.

The company designed its fieldwork to explore three major banded-iron formation (BIF) horizons – Madoonga in the north and Lulworth and Wilgie Mia in the southernmost portion of its tenements, with all three BIFs chosen for their extensive strike lengths that range from 5.1km to 8.8km.

The program is part of Mount Ridley’s ongoing efforts to explore and potentially unlock high-grade iron ore deposits in the region, targeting outcropping BIFs across multiple formations.

A total of 204 ground sites have now been earmarked for detailed geochemical analysis. As a first-pass exploration, the prospects were sampled to identify iron-rich zones along the BIF structures, with particular attention paid to magnetically-linear zones that commonly highlight significant iron ore deposits.

Management intends to use the results from the rock-chip program alongside geochemical and geophysical data to identify high-priority drill targets. The company has also been fortunate enough to source historic magnetic, radiometric and gravity survey data that it will integrate with the added information to zero in on prospective iron-rich zones that marry up with strong magnetic anomalies.

The combined approach should allow it to precisely target areas with the greatest potential for significant iron ore deposits.

Based on the new findings from the historical airborne geophysics surveys, we have refined our targets based on geochemistry, geology and structural interpretation. This further supports on-going ground exploration to systemically explore these highly-prospective iron-bearing areas.

The Weld Range West project covers a 52-square-kilometre area, 65km north-west of the WA town of Cue and is serviced by a sealed bitumen road. Mount Ridley’s tenements cover 18 per cent of the entire Weld Range BIF sequence, which historically has proven to be a rich source of iron ore discoveries, including Sinosteel’s Madoonga and Beebyn deposits that have a combined resource of 300 million tonnes 10km to the north-east and Fenix Resources’ 15 million-tonne Iron Ridge deposit that is 20km further north-east.

The iron mineralisation at Weld Range, which is clearly visible from satellite images, appears mainly as steeply-dipping lenses within two Archean-age BIFs.

The southern Wilgie Mia formation, where deposits are up to 40m thick, contains hematite. In the northern Madoonga formation, the deposits primarily consist of goethite, with minor hematite occurrences.

Notably, iron-rich magnetite and hematite ore bodies have also been found within the BIF sequences.

Iron ore prices have seen a significant pull-back in the past nine months, falling from US$145 (AU$220) per tonne to US$92 (AU$138) per tonne for the first time since November 2022 as the softer steel consumption conditions persist in China, reflecting a slowing property sector. Steel mill profitability has also hit its lowest point in several decades, weighed down by surplus iron ore inventories at the ports.

Fortunately, these bearish macro factors are unlikely to affect Mount Ridley right now as it is still in the early exploration phase of its Weld Range project. So, by applying a counter-cyclical approach to timing, the company may just be in the right place at the right time, assuming it is successful in making a discovery and posting a maiden resource during the course of the next year or two.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au