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Ridge is an 84% owned subsidiary of D’Aguilar and was incorporated to apply for exploration licences for sedimentary iron ore over parts of the northern Surat Basin and other areas where previous work has identified sedimentary iron ore development with over 40% iron content.
While over the past 40 years the mining industry has concentrated on the exploitation of haematite ores grading over 55% iron, it has been overlooked that for most of the history of the iron and steel industry (many centuries) iron ore grading 35+% was the accepted standard. Given that the Ridge target areas are situated adjacent to massive coal and gas reserves, and given the current high prices for iron ore, it is clear that lower than currently used grades of iron ore may have the potential to be profitably exploited even bearing costs of upgrading by processing.
The tenements held or applied for by Ridge Exploration (and those of it's subsidiary Eastern Uranium over similar geology) are shown on Figure 1. As indicated on the map, these tenements sit astride major existing or planned railway lines with access to several Queensland ports.
Substantial research into past explorer’s reports has been undertaken while Ridge has been awaiting tenement grant, and detailed radiometric and landsat remote sensing images have been sourced to assist in focussing a field program of the most prospective areas. During the later part of the year further exploration permits were applied for over prospective areas.
As all Eastern Uranium tenements with sedimentary iron ore potential were granted and Ridge tenements had also started to be granted, in May 2008 Ridge Exploration and Eastern Uranium engaged an Exploration Manager and two part time geologists to focus on the iron ore strategy. The Company committed to complete an initial broad appraisal of prospective areas over a six month period and this report was received in October. Initial field work has already identified extensive deposits of sediment hosted iron ore with several assays >40% Fe and low phosphorous content.
Eastern Uranium Pty Ltd
Eastern Uranium is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ridge Exploration Pty Ltd and a specialist east Australian explorer.
The relative lack of exploration expenditure in Queensland in the last 20 years and complete absence of Uranium exploration while exploration models were being developed in other parts of the world has meant that Queensland is now a tremendous repository of uranium exploration opportunities.
Eastern Uranium has applied the same models that dictate the location of some of Australia’s giant unconformity style uranium deposits to eastern Queensland geology. The results have been instantly encouraging. The main prospects the company has secured are located at Woolgar South in North Queensland with others at Biloela and Wondai (see figure 4 below).
Eastern Uranium holds a total of 19 licence applications over 6225km2 and is awaiting grant of these applications.
Click on images to enlarge
