The Merlin Molybdenum Rhenium Deposit, Mt Isa Inlier – Two Years from Discovery to Development

摘要

The Merlin project is situated 130 km south of Cloncurry in North West Queensland, Australia.rnIt is located within the Pre-Cambrian Mt Isa Inlier and is grouped within the Eastern Fold Belt.rnThe host rocks are metasedimentary rocks of the Proterozoic Kuridala and Staveley Formationsrnadjacent to the Mount Dore Granite.rnMerlin zone represents part of the Mount Dore polymetallic deposit containing copper, zinc,rnsilver, gold, lead, cobalt and most recently has been found to host molybdenum mineralisation.rnThis is intimately associated with economic grades of rhenium, a naturally occurring metal that isrnan important component of high temperature aircraft engines.rnThe host rock sequence is a 200 m thick zone of metasediments sandwiched between competentrngranite in the hanging wall and brittle quartzite in the foot wall. A distinct shear marks the contactrnbetween the granite and metasediments. The host rocks are comprised of three main rock types:rnblack shale, phyllite and altered banded calc-silicate.rnMineralisation dips to the east at approximately 45° in a package of fi ne grained pelites andrnbanded calc-silicates. The top 150 m of the sequence is typifi ed by black shale and phyllite. Thernlower 50 m is typifi ed by pink banded calc-silicate. The main molybdenite zone is located at andrnparallel to the pelite-calc-silicate contact. Down dip, the zone splits into two or three veins hostedrnby the calc-silicate rock suite and haloed by thin, steep dipping, stylolitic molybdenite veinlets.rnThe deposit was discovered in 2008 by routine infi ll reverse circulation sampling conductedrnfor the Mount Dore copper deposit. One hole penetrated below the main target Cu horizonrnand intersected visible molybdenite. During 2009 and 2010 a 50 × 50 m diamond drill patternrndelineated a total mineral resource of 6.7 Mt @ 1.3 per cent Mo, 23g/t Re, 0.3 per cent Cu (mostlyrnIndicated Mineral Resource with minor Inferred Mineral Resource). The resource has beenrnestimated using ordinary kriging within grade domains. Access to the deposit has commencedrnvia a decline and production through the nearby Osborne fl otation concentrator (70 km south) isrnexpected in 2012. All facilities and resources are fully owned and operated by Ivanhoe AustraliarnLimited, a public listed company on the Australian and Toronto stock exchanges.