Bush Diary Archives

2006

Bush Diary December 2006

Heron has been spending a lot of time at the Jump-up Dam project, conducting in-fill drilling programs for resource estimation.

In addition a costean has been dug to provide bulk material for metallurgical testwork.

Grades in certain areas have been better than 2% Ni in our drilling results. The ore is generally amenable to leaching and often contains siliceous matrix which gives the heap strength. High grade zones have been identified with garnierite.

The three Peters:

• Peter the digger operator
• Peter Le Fanu - Pastoralist and loader operator
• Peter Bonus - Surveyor

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Bush Diary September 2006

Our Soils program this quarter were focussed around Gibraltar and the Bulong Anticline with a number of anomalies currently being reviewed prior to follow-up programs being planned.

The drill rig has been kept busy at Jump Up Dam, Big Four and Bulong. Several encouraging intersections reported in the latest quarterly were returned at Jump Up Dam. Initial results include 8m at 2.8% Ni from 2m depth.

As part of our push to making our working environment safer we recently had Complete Occ Health fit our drill team with airborne particle monitors to ensure that the environment they are working under is kept closely monitored. This monitoring will be an ongoing process to ensure the atmosphere doesn't contain any unsafe contaminants.

As released in June's quarterly report we have been trialling a heap leach program which is producing some very encouraging results.

The Heron Heap Leach projects are focused outside the KNP laterite tenements, northeast of Kalgoorlie and centred on Yerilla within the Keith Kilkenny Tectonic Zone. The project concept targets a potential leaching operation producing 10,000 tpa nickel.

Reconnaissance EM surveys are being completed in a number of areas to generate nickel sulphide drill targets. Two significant conductors have been located so far.

A Mini Sonic rig provided by Boart Longyear was trialled on Heron's tenements to search for the perfect sample. This is a new technology in Australia.

In traditional diamond drilling the bit is cooled through the use of circulated water and mud. This water has the potential to wash out the fine material in laterites and nickel is often associated with these fine materials.

The sonic rig works by fracturing rock through sound frequencies transmitted by the bit. This makes it a lot quieter than diamond rigs and using less water means less sumps, smaller drilling pads and so less environmental impact.

Decisions on further use is likely to be made on sample quality and assay against cost.

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Bush Diary June 2006

The reverse circulation drilling program outlined in the last bush diary has now been completed and we are eagerly awaiting results.

Shortly another drilling program is due to commence at Jump Up Dam which is 150km north of Kalgoorlie.

Our soil samples collecting program continues in the areas around Leonora, Mulgabbie and Yindlalgooda where we are mainly looking for nickel and gold.

A quick field visit was made to the area of the J5 iron-ore prospect during the month. The photos below show the outcropping iron-ore and Mat Longworth inspecting the outcrop.

Heron has previously released some significant drilling results from the J5 prospect.

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Bush Diary April 2006

We have recently commenced reverse circulation drilling in the Big Four area, some 70 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie. This is the first of a number of programs that Heron is conducting in the coming months to extend the zones of known nickel laterite mineralisation. Other programs are planned in the Goongarrie, Ghost Rocks and Bulong areas. This drilling is in addition to the diamond core drilling currently being undertaken by Inco.

With the new mining legislation being proclaimed in February, the last few weeks have been a busy time of pegging new mining leases. By pegging mining leases we have the option to revert them back to exploration licences or prospecting licences in the next year. John Briant, our senior field supervisor, is pictured here pegging the datum post of two mining leases in the Perrinvale area.

Field reconnaissance work continues in a number of areas, including surface sampling for gold and nickel mineralisation.