Mt Elvire Project

Aquila holds the rights to minerals other than iron ore and diamonds over 32 exploration tenements covering an area of 5,545 sq km in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The Australian Premium Iron Joint Venture acquired the tenement package from De Beers in early 2006, securing the iron ore rights, but with De Beers and Aquila holding the diamond and other minerals rights respectively.

The Mt Elvire Project tenements are at an early exploration stage with no significant previous exploration or reported occurrences of minerals other than iron ore. Aquila's exploration objective is to identify targets within the tenement package prospective for the discovery of a stand alone mineral deposit. The commodities targeted include manganese, gold, silver, uranium and base metals.

The Mt Elvire Project covers a large area of poorly accessible and remote Lower Proterozoic stratigraphy in the north Hamersley – West Pilbara region. Aquila's exploration approach was to analyse some 1,300 stream sediment samples that had been collected by De Beers, while exploring for diamonds. Interpretation of the results was integrated with Landsat and hyperspectral imagery along with photo geological studies. Targets defined from the recognition of anomalous patterns have been investigated by helicopter supported field reconnaissance. This is to be followed by campaigns of geological mapping, geophysics and geochemistry.