Cookes Creek Tungsten

Hazelwood’s focus is the Cookes Creek nickel sulphide and tungsten project located near Nullagine in the East Pilbara of Western Australia.

The project is situated approximately 220 kilometres northwest of Newman and 30 kilometres northeast of Nullagine.

History

Tungsten was mined from the historical Cookes Creek mining centre during the 1950’s. The mining activity during that era targeted wolframite vein hosted mineralisation. The project is the largest recorded historic production centre for tungsten in the Pilbara.

At the Big Hill target, extensive diamond drilling, costeaning and preliminary metallurgical testwork was conducted as recently as 1984 by Kalgoorlie Southern Gold Mines NL and Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. A shallow dipping zone of sheeted vein scheelite – fluorite mineralisation was delineated.

Surface apparent widths of mineralisation at Big Hill of up to 70 metres at 0.28 per cent WO3 were returned from channel sampling. 40 diamond drillholes completed on a nominal 50 metre by 25 metre pattern, confirmed the continuation of significant mineralisation at depth, and the deposit remains open down-dip.

In addition to Big Hill, several other occurrences of scheelite mineralisation were noted, flanking the Cookes Creek Granite, which is considered the source of mineralisation. Rock chip samples of up to 7.6 per cent WO3, stream sediment anomalism and significant drillhole intercepts were returned from a number of localities.

Hazelwood’s Activities

The Company’s tungsten interests at Cookes Creek are held through its wholly owned subsidiary BigHill Resources Limited.

Extensive metallurgical and process flow design work has been undertaken upon bulk deposits extracted at the Big Hill Tungsten Project. A sample concentrate has been extracted and confirmation received that it meets specifications of most tungsten concentrate end users. A simple gravity circuit has been confirmed as the appropriate means for the production of tungsten concentrate.

In-fill diamond and RC drilling has been conducted at Big Hill by the Company to provide data to enable a Mineral Resource estimate. The Big Hill deposit had previously been drilled on a nominal 50 metre by 25 metre pattern by previous explorers, and the recent drilling campaigns by the Company have increased the intensity of the drilling, and identified controls on mineralisation.

Scheelite and Fluorite mineralisation at Big Hill is hosted in sheeted veins and fractures within a shallow-dipping layered intrusion. Mineralisation remains open at depth. Assays received to date from drilling and metallurgical samples indicates an unusual style of mineralisation in that it is free from deleterious elements such as molybdenum and base metals. A reconnaissance drill hole approximately 350 metres south of the main Big Hill deposit confirms mineralisation to be present and to be open at depth.

Historical drilling, costeaning and geochemical sampling at Cookes Creek provides a number of additional tungsten Exploration targets. These targets occur around the rim of the Cookes Creek Granite, identified as a source of mineralisation. The Company has tenure covering the entire Cookes Creek Granite, providing significant Exploration upside.