Located 130km south of Port Hedland, Abydos is expected to be the third mining operation for Atlas after Pardoo and Wodinga. The two most prospective areas within the Abydos Project, which were the main focus of exploration during 2008, are the Pincunah and Lalla Rookh trends. These highly prospective BIF-rich horizons are known to host supergene bedded hematite-goethite iron enrichment.

A total of 29 DSO targets have been delineated within these areas, ranging from potential mineralisation interpreted from remotely sensed data (i.e. Landsat, aerial photography & aeromagnetics) through to resources defined by RC & diamond drilling. Seven of these targets are currently at resource stage. First-pass exploration drilling has been completed on the majority of prospects, with the bulk of activity focused on the Lalla Rookh trend.

The current resource inventory for Abydos and the Greater Abydos area is 22.3 Mt @ 57.1% Fe (May 2009) with the majority located on the Lalla Rookh Trend and within the Trigg Deposits.  Reserves of 7.4 Mt @ 58.1% Fe are contained within an optimised pit design on the Trigg Deposit. Atlas believes that the prospectivity at Abydos is such that it will soon boast a larger resource and reserve base than Pardoo, at a higher average Fe grade.

Atlas has completed a pre-feasibility study for a proposed 3Mtpa DSO operation at Abydos, with Trigg as the first deposit to be mined. In early 2009 Atlas made the decision to promote Wodgina ahead of Abydos in the production schedule, simply because of Wodgina's low capital costs resulting from the Talison infrastructure sharing agreement, and Abydos remains a key to the company's expansion plans.

The Company's current estimate of total target potential for Abydos Project is in the range 30 - 40 Mt.

Please click to view enlarged version of above map.

Figure 1: Lalla Rookh prospect location plan.