Byro Project

LOCATION AND ACCESS

The Byro Project is located near Byro Sta­tion in the Gas­coyne Min­eral Field, of West­ern Aus­tralia. The cen­tre of the project is approx­i­mately 250 kilo­me­tres from Ger­ald­ton and 300 kilo­me­tres from Carnarvon.

TENURE

Athena’s Byro Project cov­ers approx­i­mately 3,000 square kilo­me­tres and con­sists of ten Explo­ration Licences and 2 Explo­ration Licence Appli­ca­tions. Athena has a 100% inter­est in the project.  The Com­pany has applied and received autho­ri­sa­tion to explore for iron ore on Explo­ration Licences E09/1507, E09/1552, E09/1637 and E09/1781.

IRON ORE

The Byro Iron Ore Project is strate­gi­cally located approx­i­mately 100km west of the pro­posed Mid­west Iron Ore Rail­way which is planned to link exist­ing and future iron ore projects in the Mid West Region to the pro­posed Oaka­jee deep water bulk ship­ping port north of Ger­ald­ton. (Fig­ure 1)

Dur­ing the Sep­tem­ber quar­ter 2010 a DTR analy­sis was car­ried out on the sam­ples recov­ered from the 1800 meter, 17 drill hole Reverse Cir­cu­la­tion (RC) pro­gram car­ried out on the mag­netic tar­gets on E09/1507 (Table 1). Results con­firmed the poten­tial to pro­duce a high-grade mag­netite con­cen­trate with super low lev­els of detri­men­tal impu­ri­ties. Grades include up to 71.6% Fe and 93.8% Fe3O4 in con­cen­trate from a grind prepa­ra­tion of nom­i­nally 80% pass­ing 35 microm­e­ters. Weight recov­er­ies of up to 56% were achieved.

TABLE 1. BYRO – IRON ORE – Davis Tube Recov­ery Results

Hole ID	From	To	Inter­cept	Fe% Head	Fe% Conc	DTR Wt%	Fe3O4% Conc	SiO2% Conc	AI2O3% Conc	P% Conc	LOI% Conc
AHRC0001	95	99	4	40.90	70.3	49.0	75.9	1.09	0.33	0.003	–2.33
AHRC0002	117	123	6	37.80	70.7	50.5	92.0	1.35	0.26	0.005	–3.15
and	133	146	13	34.64	70.5	43.6	91.8	1.32	0.53	0.003	–3.12
AHRC0003	59	109	50	34.66	70.5	41.5	90.6	1.53	0.39	0.004	–3.28
includ­ing	86	91	5	39.33	70.5	41.1	91.2	1.19	0.46	0.003	–3.25
AHRC0004	96	100	4	25.66	66.5	30.2	85.8	4.25	1.32	0.003	–2.82
and	116	118	2	32.23	69.9	39.4	90.0	1.72	0.47	0.004	–3.14
AHRC0005	64	102	38	30.38	69.0	38	89.9	3.01	0.62	0.003	–3.03
includ­ing	82	88	6	38.22	70.0	45.5	91.5	2.35	0.33	0.002	–3.14
AHRC0006	85	161	76	28.54	70.4	33.5	91.1	1.71	0.39	0.003	–3.23
includ­ing	91	95	4	32.68	70.5	40.4	92.0	1.40	0.39	0.003	–3.19
includ­ing	125	161	38	33.97	70.9	46.1	90.8	1.44	0.26	0.004	–3.34
AHRC0007	38	52	14	32.16	71.0	39.5	90.8	1.10	0.40	0.006	–3.30
includ­ing	44	52	10	33.13	71.1	41.3	90.9	1.07	0.24	0.002	–3.27
and	74	80	6	25.25	71.1	28.2	92.2	0.81	0.34	0.001	–3.21
AHRC0008	68	151	83	32.62	70.7	40.2	90.6	1.32	0.33	0.003	–3.29
AHRC0009	98	118	20	29.26	70.6	33.9	89.8	1.45	0.38	0.003	–3.27
includ­ing	98	108	10	30.33	70.6	35	90.2	1.35	0.44	0.003	–3.29
includ­ing	108	118	10	28.20	70.7	32.7	89.4	1.55	0.31	0.003	–3.25
AHRC0011	107	167	60	34.87	70.4	44.8	90.0	1.67	0.29	0.003	–3.27
AHRC0015	88	124	36	26.73	69.4	22.1	87.0	2.07	0.79	0.003	–2.94
includ­ing	88	96	8	32.16	69.4	31.4	87.8	2.12	0.75	0.002	–3.06
AHRC0017	88	98	10	39.81	71.1	52	92.5	1.07	0.39	0.002	–3.32

Note:
Fe: Iron; SiO2: Sil­i­con Diox­ide; AI2O3 : Alu­minium Oxide; P: Phos­pho­rus;  LOI: Loss On Igni­tion;  Fe3O4%: Magnetite

Fig­ures 3, 4, and 5 are cross sec­tions of drill holes AHRC0004 to AHRC0011 at the Fe1 Prospect. These fig­ures show the DTR con­cen­trate Fe grades achieved on each of the sections.

Fol­low­ing on from the DTR results the Com­pany car­ried out Grind Opti­miza­tion test work on the FE1 Ore Body. The mag­netite iron ore sam­ples tested were a com­pos­ite from the first drilling pro­gram. The size grind­ing process of iron ore is expo­nen­tially expen­sive the finer the grind size.

The qual­ity of this prod­uct can be seen when com­par­ing opti­mum grind size to Fe lib­er­a­tion with mag­netite prod­uct through­out Aus­tralia. The Byro Iron Ore prod­uct, plot­ting to the far right in red, is unsur­passed and has a sig­nif­i­cant advan­tage to pro­duce high grade ore at eco­nomic rates.

Data source form ASX Announce­ments platform

Grind Size Opti­miza­tion Results

The grind size opti­miza­tion analy­sis for Fe lib­er­a­tion was com­pleted by Amdel Lab­o­ra­to­ries, Perth. The Sam­ple used was a com­pos­ite from 11 holes drilled at FE1.  DTR Results from grind size tests are below in Tables 1, 2 and 3. At 109 µm grind size a grade of 71.02% Fe in con­cen­trate was achieved with 46% mass recov­ery and super low impurities.

Table 1  Feed Grade

Fe	SiO2	Al2O3	TiO2	MnO	CaO	P XRF	S XRF	MgO	K2O	Na2O	LOI	Fe3O4 Sat
38.33	39.61	1.15	0.24	0.20	1.06	0.06	0.09	4.05	0.04	0.06	–1.54	42.60

 

Table 2  Grind Size and Recov­ery

DTR Work
P80 Tar­get	P80 Actual	DT Feed	DT Mass Recovery
		g	con (g)	%
250	292	19.971	10.53	52.7
125	109	20.11	9.24	46.0
75	75	19.982	9.17	45.9
45	43	20.075	9.53	47.5
25	29	20.01	9.29	46.4

 

Table 3 Mag­netite Con­cen­trate Assays ( Fe% @ µm)

Actual Grind µm	Chem­i­cal Assay (%)
	Fe	SiO2	Al2O3	TiO2	MnO	CaO	P XRF	S XRF	MgO	K2O	Na2O	LOI	Fe3O4
292	62.66	10.65	0.65	0.286	0.080	0.25	0.013	0.04	0.96	0.011	0.014	–2.87	83.2
109	71.02	0.83	0.54	0.287	0.060	0.03	0.003	0.01	0.12	0.004	0.001	–3.34	92.5
75	71.04	0.53	0.52	0.278	0.060	0.02	0.002	0.01	0.09	0.004	0.007	–3.39	92.5
43	71.17	0.44	0.51	0.265	0.060	0.02	0.001	0.01	0.08	0.003	0.003	–3.43	94.0
29	71.24	0.42	0.50	0.261	0.060	0.02	0.001	0.01	0.07	0.003	0.006	–3.51	94.2

Fe: Iron; SiO2: Sil­i­con Diox­ide; AI2O3 : Alu­minium Oxide; S:Sulfur; K: Potas­sium; P: Phos­pho­rus;  LOI: Loss On Igni­tion; Fe3O4%: Mag­netite

Points to note

• Super low  impu­ri­ties, P, S, MgO, K2O,Na2O
• Pos­i­tive oxy­gen gain on ignition
• Below 1% SiO2

Thin Sec­tion Petrology

In con­junc­tion with grind size opti­mi­sa­tion, a petro­logic assess­ment was com­pleted to deter­mine grain size and min­er­al­ogy of the ore.

Com­po­si­tion of RC chip sam­ples from pet­ro­graphic / min­er­a­graphic descrip­tions were per­formed by Roger Tow­nend and Asso­ciates, the con­stituents and abun­dance listed in Table 4 below.

Table 4

FERROAN MINERALS	MAGNETITE	MAJOR
	GRUNERITE	MAJOR
	CHALCOPYRITE	TRACE
	PYRITE	ACCESSORY
	PYRRHOTITE	TRACE
	ILMENITE	TRACE
SILICATE MINERALS
	QUARTZ	MAJOR
	BIOTITE/CHLORITE	ACCESSORY
	HORNBLENDE	TRACE

CLASSIFIED AS A MAGNETITE PYRITE AMPHIBOLE QUARTZITE

Pho­tomi­cro­graphs in plates 1, 2 and 3 show grain size and com­po­si­tion of min­er­al­ogy. The plates dis­play mag­netite gruner­ite quartzites, with strong lin­eation of the min­er­als. The quartz is gra­noblas­tic, and lin­ear, whereas finer amphi­boles are idioblastic.

 

The mag­netite grains are the major com­po­nent of all chips. The major­ity of the grains are coarse grained and elon­gate (typ­i­cal dimen­sions 0.5× 1.5mm) with some align­ment in the quartzite, plate 1 above. There is a small quan­tity of equant fines with grain­sizes under 50 microns.

Plate 2 is a close up of dom­i­nantly mag­netite grains and quartz

 

Plate 3 is a close up of the very fine pyrrhotite inclu­sions in the mag­netite demon­strat­ing rare small inclu­sions within the magnetite

 

The RC chips described in thin sec­tion were from AHRC0008, inter­val 101m to 102m. The DTR com­pos­ite results below are from AHRC0008 which include this inter­val are listed in table 5 and can be com­pared with the DTR results from the grind opti­miza­tion above.

The qual­ity of this mag­netite prod­uct is unmis­tak­able. In order to bet­ter under­stand the met­al­lurgy and ben­e­fi­ci­a­tion Athena Resources has com­mis­sioned fur­ther work, cur­rently being car­ried out in China at the Chang­sha Research Insti­tute of Min­ing and Met­al­lurgy, (CRIMM). This work is to refine stage grind­ing and recov­ery processes par­tic­u­larly in rela­tion to reduced grind­ing require­ments and hence improved eco­nom­ics for recov­ery of mate­r­ial. The work also includes low inten­sity mag­netic field strength tests, and sep­a­ra­tion and analy­sis of tail­ings to enable Athena to iden­tify suit­able process flow systems.

In Decem­ber 2010, Athena com­pleted an out­crop rock chip sam­pling pro­gram at Byro, con­ducted as a fol­low up from refined high ampli­tude mag­netic tar­get­ing. The sam­pling pro­gram was designed to test high ampli­tude mag­netic anom­alies above 1500nT from fresh rock where out­crop was available.The results from this pro­gram have revealed out­stand­ing Fe grades at selected anom­alies shown in Table 1 below.

Rock Chip Results – Table 1

SAMPLE ID	Loca­tion	East	North	Fe%	SiO2%	Al2O3%	P%	S%	LOI%
MBRC250	Byro North 1	418034.1	7131170	41.5	37.88	1.01	0.026	0.065	1.37
MBRC251	Byro North 2	418149.9	7130920	40.49	40.33	0.57	0.034	0.021	0.76
MBRC252	Byro North 2	418217.4	7131013	41.75	37.29	0.99	0.041	0.035	1.69
MBRC253	Byro North 3	418392.8	7130679	44.91	33.22	0.57	0.038	0.043	1.49
MBRC254	Byro North 3	418382.5	7130533	41.12	38.13	0.97	0.039	0.044	1.78
MBRC264	Byro North 4	417549.5	7128231	41.37	37.76	0.83	0.037	0.071	1.74
MBRC265	Byro North 5	418123.3	7127913	43.34	35.03	0.99	0.021	0.087	1.04
MBRC266	Byro North 5	418133.7	7127850	41.83	35.25	1.97	0.031	0.207	1.67
MBRC267	Byro North 6	418098.8	7127100	45.32	31.1	0.73	0.026	0.099	2.64
MBRC262	Byro North­west 1	414511.7	7124717	42.91	35.28	0.61	0.07	0.123	1.98
MBRC263	Byro North­west 2	413409.6	7126312	42.69	35.62	0.69	0.032	0.085	1.96
MBRC255	Byro South 1	417040	7099349	44.66	32.63	0.74	0.04	0.082	2.18
MBRC256	Byro South 1	417040	7099349	49.82	23.94	0.91	0.046	0.163	3.27
MBRC257	Byro South 1	416890.2	7099708	49.12	20.91	1.79	0.065	0.147	5.7
MBRC258	Byro South 1	416774.5	7099807	46.87	29.89	0.68	0.026	0.065	2.05
MBRC260	Byro South 2	414966.5	7101515	43.48	34.91	0.93	0.036	0.059	1.46

Fe = Iron, SiO2 = sil­ica, Al2O3 = Alu­minium, P = phos­pho­rus, S = Sul­phur
All sam­ples analysed at Ultra Trace Pty Ltd — Can­ning Vale, West­ern Aus­tralia by method XRF202
Loss on Igni­tion (LOI) deter­mined Gravimetrically

FE1, located right of cen­tre in Fig­ure 2 below, was sam­pled in 2009 and drill tested in Sep­tem­ber 2010. It is referred to for com­par­i­son of size and grade, (Fig­ure 3)

Byro South Anom­aly 1 dips mod­er­ately steep to the west, strikes NNE and has a shal­low plunge SSW. The out­crop occurs along the east­ern mar­gin for 800m on strike and 450m per­pen­dic­u­lar to dip. Aver­age aero­mag­netic ampli­tude at sam­ple loca­tions MBCR255 to MBCR258 and MBCR260 is 3926.74nT with 46.79% Fe at out­crop, shown in the fol­low­ing pho­tos.

 

As reported in Octo­ber 2010, the extent of the inter­preted iron ore tar­gets iden­ti­fied from the aero­mag­netic sur­veys, within ten­e­ments E09/1552, E09/1507, E09/1508, E09/1637 and EL09/1781, cover an area of 40 km by 30 km (or 1200 sq km). This included 20km strike length of prospec­tive mag­netite iron ore horizon.

Results from this sam­pling pro­gram demon­strate that all out­crop sam­pled which had a mag­netic sig­na­ture above 1500nT ampli­tude returned Fe assays of greater than 40% and as high as 49.82% Fe. (Table 2)

Table 2

Com­par­i­son of Aver­age Assays							Aver­age Aero­mag­netic Response
Loca­tion	Fe%	SiO2%	Al2O3%	P%	S%	LOI%	nT
FE1	37.55	42.14	1.23	0.038	0.065	1.57	2430
Byro South 1 & 2	46.79	28.45	1.01	0.043	0.103	2.93	3927
All Oth­ers	42.48	35.7	0.902	0.037	0.08	1.65	1558