Nevada Iron Ltd. - Quarterly Report for the period ended 31 December 2013

03.02.2014  |  CNW

HIGHLIGHTS

• Non-brokered private placements completed raising a total of $8.1 million;


• TSX listing achieved;


• Four new directors appointed and two directors retire;


• 1 for 6 consolidation completed;


• Strategic land holding acquisition completed, increasing land owned and leased by 163%;


• Engineering services contract for permitting support awarded to Samuels Engineering;


• Significant progress on data collection for permitting;


• Ground mapping over the newly acquired Section 27 area has identified an area 800m long by an average width of 180m wide, with extensive magnetite surface float coincident with strong magnetic anomaly.

WEST PERTH, Feb. 3, 2014 - Nevada Iron Ltd. (ASX Code: NVI, TSX Code: NVR) is a resource company focused on the development of the Buena Vista Iron Project located in northern Nevada, USA. This project demonstrates the attributes for a successful iron ore development, namely:

• Near surface resource;
• Very low waste to ore ratio (0.5:1);
• Easy metallurgy with a coarse grind producing a high grade (67.5-69% Fe) and clean concentrate;
• Close to existing nearby transport infrastructure and no requirement to build significant infrastructure, e.g. a rail line;
• Access to existing ports;
• Manageable capital cost;
• Stable and mining friendly jurisdiction;
• No government royalty imposts;
• Phase 1 project on private land, making permitting less onerous.

Corporate

On 17 October 2013, shareholder approval was obtained for the following actions:

• The acquisition, from New Nevada Resources LLC, of a large strategic land package for a total consideration of $2,841,044 (Acquisition);
• The consolidation of the Company's share capital on a 1 for 6 basis (Consolidation);
• The placement of 3,571,429 shares and warrants (on a pre-Consolidation basis) to raise $500,000 in working capital (Private Placement);
• The placement of 53,571,429 shares and 17,857,143 warrants (on a pre-Consolidation basis) to raise $7,500,000 and to facilitate the listing of the Company's securities on the Toronto Stock Exchange (Listing Private Placement).

Consolidation

Following the receipt of shareholder approval on 17 October 2013, the 1 for 6 Consolidation became effective as of 28 October 2013


Private Placement

On 21 October 2013, the non-brokered Private Placement was completed raising $500,000.


Listing Private Placement

On 7 November 2013 the Company completed the non-brokered Listing Private Placement, raising $7,612,269 by the issue of 9,062,225 shares at an issue price of $0.84 per share (on a post Consolidation basis) and the grant of 3,020,764 free attaching warrants each exercisable at $1.68 and expiring 31 December 2015 (on a post Consolidation basis)


Board Changes

Upon completion of the Listing Private Placement and the securing of the listing of the Company's securities on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), the following Board changes took effect on 7 November 2013;

• Messrs AB Morrow, D Pattalock, HA Rushing and AS Peck were appointed as Directors; and
• Messrs L Jelenich and T Duckworth retired as Directors.

TSX Listing

On Monday 11 November 2013, the Company's ordinary fully paid shares were admitted for trading on the TSX.


Grant of Incentive Options

Following the receipt of shareholder approval at the Company's Annual General Meeting, on 24 December 2013 the following incentive options (each exercisable at $1.20 and expiring 31 October 2016) were granted to the following parties (or their nominees):

Name	Position	Number of Options
Taj Singh	Non-Executive Director	125,000
Mick McMullen	Executive Chairman	20,834
Andrew Brice	Non-Executive Director	20,834
Chris Tanner	Chief Operating Officer	50,000
Cindi Byrns	Environmental Manager	41,667
Michael Higginson	Company Secretary	41,667

Buena Vista Iron Project, USA (100%)

Acquisition

On 31 October 2013, the Company completed the acquisition of a large strategic land package for a total consideration of $2,841,044 through a combination of outright purchase and long term lease, resulting in a 163% increase in the total footprint of the Company's tenure in the Buena Vista area.

The combination of these assets with the Company's existing assets has resulted in the Company being the dominant player in the Buena Vista iron province with:

• The largest land holding in the province;
• The largest mineral resource and mineral reserve position in the province;
• The most advanced development project in the province;
• The best access to infrastructure, water and easements in the province;
• Access to a dedicated multiuser rail siding;
• An agreement for a port allocation sufficient for all Phase 1 tonnage.

The freehold land package acquired is contiguous with the Company's existing tenure and contains some very strong magnetic anomalies that host magnetite mineralisation within a distance of 3km of the planned process plant site.

The vendors of the land package also hold substantial royalty interests over nearby claims that host magnetite mineralisation. The Company has also purchased several of these royalty interests.

This acquisition is expected to result in the Company benefitting from mining developments that may arise on those nearby claims.

In addition, the Company has been granted access easements over all of its required infrastructure corridors and is acquiring additional land at the Company's recently purchased Huxley rail siding to augment the rail siding. This will materially simplify the permitting process and the construction of the infrastructure required to operate the project and for potential expansions.

The total asset package acquired consists of:

• A long term lease (subject to a 2% Net Smelter Royalty) of 5,205 acres of private mineral land;
• A long term lease (subject to a 2% Net Smelter Royalty) of 256 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) mining claims;
• A 2.5% 30 year term royalty on Section 9, Township 24 North, Range 34 East (Histed) (immediately adjoining the West Deposit);
• A 30 year term royalty on the following sections owned by Zephyr Minerals Inc:
• 2.5% NSR on Section 15, Township 25 North, Range 34 East
• 1.25% NSR on Section 9, Township 25 North, Range 34 East
• 2.5% NSR on Section 29, Township 26 North, Range 34 East;
• A rail siding, of the Company's, choice along the main rail line within the vendors' land holding (which will increase the Huxley siding referred to above);
• A first right of refusal to lease the vendors Buena Vista Iron District assets covering a further 6,353 acres of private mineral land and 101 BLM mining claims;
• certain water rights;
• Historical data, recent airborne magnetic surveys and logistical studies and arrangements concerning shipment of iron ore from the area;
• Easements over all infrastructure corridors including power line, water line, roads and future concentrate pipeline within the vendors' land holding.

The total consideration of $2,841,044 was settled by:

• the issuance of 3,181,756 shares (post Consolidation), at the deemed issue price per share of $0.84 and 5,952,386 warrants each exercisable at $1.68 and expiring 31 December 2015; and
• $168,369 in cash.

As a result of the Acquisition, New Nevada Resources, LLC emerged with 13.13% interest in the Company, prior to completion of the Listing Private Placement.

The vendors of the land package were New Nevada Resources, LLC, a Florida limited liability company and New Nevada Lands, LLC, a Mississippi limited liability company. Both companies are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Conduit, LLC, a Florida limited liability company. Conduit, LLC, is a closely held private company engaged in resource land ownership and investment, minerals, oil and gas exploration and development and conservation finance. Conduit, LLC, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, owns, controls and manages over 1.2 million acres of fee mineral rights and royalty interests in Nevada as well as approximately 500,000 acres of fee surface ownership in Nevada, making it the largest private land owner in the state of Nevada.

The Company currently leases several areas of the Buena Vista Iron Project from the vendors and upon commencement of production has certain royalty obligations.


NI-43101 Pre-Feasibility Study Technical Report

The NI 43-101 Pre-Feasibility Study Technical Report is a key requirement for the TSX listing, as well as for North American investors.

The Technical Report was lodged in November 2013 and is available on the Company's website. The results of the Technical Report indicate a robust project at conservative iron ore prices.

The Company tendered and awarded a Master Services Agreement to Samuel Engineering Inc, out of Denver Colorado, to advance the facility design to a Feasibility Level and to provide engineering support for the permitting effort. Samuel Engineering has had previous experience on the Buena Vista Iron Project and has EPCM experience on similar iron ore processing facilities in the Western United States.

A drilling contract was awarded to National Drilling for development of site characterisation wells for the Section 5 and West Deposit pits. These wells will provide critical information on the site hydro-geologic conditions needed to calibrate the ground water model and develop additional base line data for the Water Pollution Control Permit. Drilling commenced on 13 December 2013 and is expected to be completed by early February 2014.

The results of 26 week Humidity Cell Tests were submitted to Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP), Bureau of Mining Regulation and Reclamation (BMRR) and approval to complete the testing was granted. NDEP and BMRR acknowledged that all 14 tests were non-Potentially Acid Generating. The highly net neutralising nature of the deposit mitigates the need for any special handling of the waste and tailings material.

A large amount of historic core was located, cleaned and moved to the Company's core storage facility from its previous temporary location. The core is currently being organised and catalogued for future use.

Ground mapping over the new acquired Section 27 area (3km to the north east of the West Deposit) has identified an area 800m long by an average width of 180m wide with extensive magnetite surface float (Figures 1 and 2).

No mineral resources have been defined for the Section 27 target but the mapping indicates the presence of a large area of strong magnetite mineralisation. Following the encouraging surface mapping results, the Company moved quickly to cover the area with ground magnetics and the resulting anomaly is shown in Figure 3.

The magnetic anomaly measures 1.6km long by 1km wide and appears to have a stronger intensity than the anomaly that covers the existing mineral resources at the West, Section 5 and East Deposits.

Drilling of the Section 27 target is planned during the upcoming field season and results will be released as available. The presence of extensive high-grade magnetite on surface and a large strong intensity magnetic anomaly provide excellent indicators for the targeting of drill holes.

See "Figure 3 - Ground magnetics showing new anomalies at Section 27 target"


Acquisition of new mineral rights

The Company also entered into an agreement for the acquisition of 278.61 acres of free hold land (including mineral rights) adjacent to the existing West Deposit (covering the western ½ of section 9 T24N R34E in Churchill County, Nevada). This acquisition was settled in January.

The acquisition of this land accomplishes several objectives:

• Adding an estimated 1.6 million metric tonnes of ore grading 13.5% Fe in the southern portion of the West Deposit Pit. This additional ore was sterilised due to the position of the final pit wall, which abutted the property boundary. Acquisition of land in this area allows the repositioning of final pit walls to better and more efficiently exploit the mineral resource;
• Providing additional exploration potential for mineral resource extension across the acquired property. The current mineral resource estimate was terminated at the previous property boundary;
• Expanding options for the location of key infrastructure;
• Increasing the buffer zone around the proposed plant, tailings disposal facility and West Deposit Pit, which:
• reduces the impact on the neighbouring land owners,
• improves access to the proposed facility,
• reduces capital and operating costs by simplifying dust control requirements, and
• simplifies the permitting procedure.

The consideration paid was US$400,000 in cash and a 2% NSR on production from the area purchased.


Narracoota

Latin Gold Limited is the operator of the Narracoota joint venture. Under the terms of this joint venture Latin Gold can earn a 90% equity interest in the project through the expenditure of $500,000.

No work, apart from annual report preparation, was carried out over the Narracoota project during the quarter.


Mick McMullen
Mick McMullen, Executive Chairman



Competent Persons Statements

Information in this report to which this statement is attached that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mick McMullen, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr McMullen is an officer of the Company, is self-employed and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity to which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr McMullen consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

The information in the report that relates to the Mineral Reserves of West Deposit is based on information compiled by Declan Franzmann, who is a Chartered Professional Fellow of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Franzmann is employed by Citraen Pty Ltd and has sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves" and to qualify as a "Qualified Person" under NI 43-101. Mr Franzmann consents to the inclusion in the news release of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

The Company has determined, in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code, that the increase in mineral reserves is not material (being a 1% increase in contained metal) and that Table 1 is not required.

SOURCE Nevada Iron Ltd.


Image with caption: "Figure 1 - Extensive magnetite surface float (CNW Group/Nevada Iron Ltd.)". Image available at:
http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20140203_C7018_PHOTO_EN_36155.jpg

Image with caption: "Figure 2 - Close up of high grade magnetite float (CNW Group/Nevada Iron Ltd.)". Image available at:
http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20140203_C7018_PHOTO_EN_36156.jpg

Image with caption: "Figure 3 - Ground magnetics showing new anomalies at Section 27 target (CNW Group/Nevada Iron Ltd.)". Image available at:
http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20140203_C7018_PHOTO_EN_36154.jpg

PDF available at:
http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2014/02/03/20140203_C7018_DOC_EN_36157.pdf

PDF available at:
http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2014/02/03/20140203_C7018_DOC_EN_36158.pdf

PDF available at:
http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2014/02/03/20140203_C7018_DOC_EN_36159.pdf



Contact

on the Company visit www.nv-iron.com or contact
Mick McMullen, Executive Chairman
Nevada Iron Ltd.
Tel: +61(0)8 9481 2006
Email: mick.mcmullen@nv-iron.com