Company Profile

Company Profile | Our People | Corporate Governance | Sustainable development

History

Matilda Minerals is a Western Australian mining and exploration company set up to identify, explore and develop high grade zircon rich mineral sands deposits. After incorporation in 2003, Matilda Minerals floated on the ASX on 15 September 2004. Matilda started its first mining operation at Andranangoo Creek on Melville Island in October 2005.

In 2003, Matilda's management saw a market niche in the potential development of small, but rich mineral sands deposits having zircon as the major component. Economic development in China and other Asian countries meant Australia's mineral wealth was in demand and zircon was no exception. A supply deficit was looming and strong growth in zircon prices supported by strong demand growth was forecast.

The high value deposits being sought by Matilda have the potential for low capital costs, are relatively simple operations with small environmental footprints and impacts compared with typical minerals sands operations.

The initial focus of the company was on the Tiwi Islands (Bathurst and Melville Islands) lying some 60km north of Darwin in the Northern Territory where evaluation of historical data showed great potential for small, but significant zircon-rutile rich mineral sands with the capability for economic development.

The Tiwi Islands are the traditional lands of the Tiwi people and Matilda's positive and co-operative approach to the social sustainability enabled the negotiation of an agreement with the Tiwi Land Council for exploration and development. This agreement is formally recognised by the Northern Territory and Federal Governments.

Matilda's corporate strategy of acquiring tenements that have potential to host substantial zircon and rutile-rich mineral sands deposits continued in October 2004 with the announcement of exploration licence applications in the Kimberley region at Pender, approximately 100km north of Broome, and near Carnarvon on the mid-west coast of WA.

With exploration tenements covering 250 km of the most prospective coastline of the Tiwi Islands, Matilda commenced an aggressive exploration program shortly after ASX listing in November 2004. This program was immediately successful resulting in Matilda announcing the discovery of significant mineral sand deposits on 14 December and the start of a feasibility study.

The feasibility study results and the announcement of Resources at Andranangoo Creek West ("Andranangoo"), Lethbridge Bay West ("Lethbridge") on the north coast of Melville Island and increased the known resource at Puwanapi on the west coast of Bathurst Island followed in March 2005. The Reserves are all surface or near surface deposits with little or no overburden and are above the water table. The mineralisation is coarse, low in slimes (clay) and is free flowing sand.

The Project Feasibility Study demonstrated that the Project has the capacity to support a mining and primary concentration operation producing 35,000 tonnes per annum ("tpa") of heavy mineral concentrate ("HMC") for at least 3 years. On average this will produce 13,000 tpa zircon, 9,000 tpa rutile/leucoxene and 11,000 tpa ilmenite.

With high confidence in the Tiwi Islands project a conventional wet spiral concentrator was commissioned with construction completed in July 2005 and shipping to Melville in August 2005.

Meanwhile further exploration in 2005 and 2006 resulted in additional Resources and Reserves being announced in September 2006.

An Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") was finalised in December 2005 and the project "green light" was announced in September 2006. The Company commenced production at the project in October 2006 with first shipment of concentrate delivered to China in June 2007.

In line with Matilda's strategy of targeting coastal sandplains, additional tenements have been applied for on the Tiwi Islands, the west coast of Cape York north of Weipa, the west coast of the Northern Territory, and NE Kimberley region. In the middle of 2006 a slight change in strategy occurred with an application in NSW near Narrabri covering a potential high tonnage low grade deposit where previous reports indicate the heavy mineral suite comprises up to 90% combined rutile and zircon at a grade of 0.4% heavy mineral.

The targeted sand plains on Cape York are an order of magnitude larger than the Tiwi Islands and contain known heavy mineral occurrences with zircon-rutile mineralogy. Access to these exciting areas is expected in 2008.

Matilda Minerals now has approximately 6500 sq km of land covering over 1000 km of coastal plains, highly prospective for mineral sands either as granted tenements or under application.

Mission Statement

Our goal is to provide shareholder value and returns through excellence in sustainable development performance whilst building a respected mining company.

Our short term goals are:

Consolidate production at Andranangoo Creek in line with the environmental management plan and sustainability policies.
Continue to explore known prospects on Melville and Bathurst islands.
To gain access to the exciting potential of the exploration tenements on the west coast of Cape York in Queensland.
Investigate additional heavy mineral deposits for future projects.

Priorities

Matilda Minerals is focused on enhancing shareholder value and as such the company's priorities for 2008 are:

Consolidate production at Andranangoo Creek in line with the environmental management plan and sustainability policies.
Production of heavy mineral concentrate and export to China providing sufficient cash flow to provide exploration funds.
Continued exploration of high priority targets on the Tiwi Islands.
Negotiation of access to exploration tenements on Cape York, Queensland.
Commence exploration on tenements at Pender, Western Australia.