REX GRANTED ANOTHER EXPLORATION LICENCE ON YORKE PENINSULA

REX GRANTED ANOTHER EXPLORATION LICENCE ON YORKE PENINSULA

On 25^th September 2014,  Rex Minerals was granted yet another Exploration Licence (EL5362)  on Yorke Peninsula   Referred to as the “Whiting Area”,  it  comprises seven  pockets of land (Areas A to G in  Figure 1 below).  

Figure 1:  Exploration Licence 5362 – AREAS A to G

                               These seven areas were amongst the last remaining pockets of land on Yorke Peninsula not yet taken up by a mining exploration company.   As Figure 2 below shows, the only other significant areas not covered by an exploration licence are at the bottom end of the Peninsula.   Rex now holds either a mining or exploration licence over  1,853 square kms of the Peninsula – the largest holding of any of the companies in the region.   Rex’s ELs include: EL 5055 = 1,261 sq kms –  includes  Hillside Mineral Lease Tenement EL 4514 = 24 sq. kms   –  coastal strip from Black Point to Tiddy Widdy – previously Coastal Protection land EL 5056 = 416 sq kms –  two sections, one centred on Curramulka and the other on Maitland. EL5362  = 151 Sq kms   – the new Whiting Area

Figure 2:  Rex’s current  Exploration Licences  

 WHY IS REX ACQUIRING FURTHER EXPLORATION LICENCES, GIVEN ITS CURRENT DIFFICULTIES IN GETTING HILLSIDE OFF THE GROUND?

The reason may be found in Rex’s  2014 Annual Report (page 4) which notes: “The Hillside Project is one of many potential large-scale copper-gold projects on the Yorke Peninsula within Rex’s wholly-owned exploration licences on the Yorke Peninsula”.   Rex has previously stated that, once it starts to build the Hillside plant, it will aggressively ‘look at’  50 other potential targets so far identified within its  existing licences.   Rex’s  goal?  To develop a network of large, open-cut satellite mines with raw material transported back to Hillside for processing via a series of haul roads.   Will the acquisition of Rex’s  new Exploration Licence mean more satellite mines, more haul roads cutting across the Peninsula’s prime cropping land, more contaminated dust, more threats to groundwater, more risk of pollution of the Gulf and more minimalist rehabilitation strategies?   When Rex have finished,  will anything beleft for future generations other than a landscape pock-marked with open pits and piles of waste rock?     YPLOG Committee             9^th Oct 2014