Overview

Croesus has acquired an extensive tenement portfolio within Western Australia, covering over 8,500 square kilometres, transforming the company into a significant new nickel and base metal explorer.

The projects are located within a world-class  nickel province as well as a number of emerging nickel and base metal provinces. The tenements are prospective  for Archean  komatiite   related nickel sulphide deposits, 
Proterozoic circum-cratonic intrusive related nickel deposits as well as volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits   

Projects include:  

Lawlers Nickel Project

• Collurabbie Nickel Project
• Fraser Range Nickel Project
• Youanmi Nickel and Base Metals Project

Lawlers (Croesus earning 70% of nickel sulphide rights)

Croesus is earning a 70% interest in the nickel sulphide rights by participating in
two separate Joint Ventures with Barrick by spending A$1.5 million on each project within three years .

The project cover 80 strike kilometres of extensions of the stratigraphy which hosts most of WA’s major nickel sulphide mines, including BHP’s Leinster and Mount Keith nickel operations, Xstrata’s Cosmos, Prospero and Sinclair nickel mines, and Norilsk’s Waterloo nickel mine.

Having been held by gold companies, it is the single largest groundholding that remains relatively unexplored for nickel sulphide since the discovery and development of most of the surrounding nickel mines. The Lawlers JV’s are prospective for small, high grade (~1mt @ 8%Ni) komatiitic nickel deposits similar to those being mined nearby.

In addition to the nickel sulphide potential, Croesus has an option to purchase
70% of the known nickel laterite resource on the Lawlers tenements, defined
by Anaconda Nickel in the late 1990’s. The global nickel laterite resource (indicated + inferred) on the Lawler’s tenements totals 212Mt @ 0.63% Ni, 0.04% Co for a contained 1.34Mt of Ni and 85Kt of Co (at a 0.5% Ni cut off).

Croesus intends to commence an exploration program initially comprising ground electromagnetic (EM) geophysics to define drill targets and subsequent testing of these targets using rotary air blast (RAB), reverse circulation (RC)
and diamond drilling.

Collurabbie (Croesus 70%)

The Collurabbie project, located on the northeast margin of the Yilgarn Craton,
is considered a prospective, greenfields project, covering a significant strike extent of a fertile greenstone belt. The project area has had no previous exploration for nickel sulphide mineralisation.

The Collurabbie JV covers the northern extensions of the stratigraphy which hosts BHP’s Olympia nickel-copper-platinum group metals (PGM’s) discovery, some 12 kilometres along strike. Drilling results previously published for the Olympia discovery include 5.77m @ 3% Ni, 1.96% Cu and 5.3g/t PGM’s. Despite being along strike from Olympia, the area is concealed by overburden and largely unexplored, and is highly prospective for Olympia-style Ni-Cu-PGM targets.

Recent electromagnetic (EM) surveys have identified up to 20 conductors, including a number that appear to broadly correspond to the prospective horizon, which have yet to be effectively drill tested.

At the Collurabbie project, Croesus intends to undertake downhole EM surveys of existing drill holes and modelling of pre-defined EM anomalies to define drill targets. It is envisaged that these targets will be drill tested later in 2009.

Fraser Range (Croesus 70% of all Base Metal Rights)

The Fraser Range JV covers 400 kilometres strike extent of the Albany-Fraser mobile belt on the margin of the Yilgarn Craton, to the south east of Anglogold’s/Independence’s Tropicana gold discovery. The project encompasses mafic - ultramafic intrusive rocks of the Fraser Complex and is considered prospective for the rare but economically significant intrusive-associated Ni-Cu-PGM deposits that are found within circum-cratonic mobile belts worldwide.

Much of the area is completely unexplored, but sulphides have been intersected in previous drilling in the southern part of the JV area adjacent to the Eyre Highway, where intersections of up to 1.8% Ni and 1.2% Cu have been recorded.

Planned exploration on the project includes broad scale reconnaissance of the more remote areas concurrently with RC and diamond drilling of defined prospects and EM anomalies.

Youanmi (Croesus 70% excluding V-Ti-Fe)

The Youanmi JV covers the Youanmi intrusive complex and surrounding felsic stratigraphy. The intrusive complex is prospective for magmatic Ni-Cu-PGM mineralisation, and the surrounding stratigraphy is prospective for volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) style copper-zinc mineralisation, as evidenced by drill intersections and resources recently defined by other companies nearby.
These occurrences include the nearby Currans prospect (7.03m @ 1.48% Ni
in drilling), Empire Resources’ Just Desserts resource (1.07mt @ 1.8% Cu and 0.8g/t Au) and Metals Australia’s Manindi resource (1.35mt @ 6% Zn). The JV also contains extensions of structures which host gold mineralisation at Apex’s nearby Youanmi gold mine.

Initial exploration at Youanmi will comprise reconnaissance geochemistry, geophysics and mapping to identify favourable areas for both magmatic nickel and volcanogenic copper-zinc mineralisation.

Boundary Well (Croesus 100%)

The Boundary Well project is situated approximately 25 km east of Leinster, Western Australia, situated on the western margin of the Yandal Greenstone Belt, which hosts the Mt McClure and Bronzewing Gold Mines to the north and the Thunderbox deposit to the southwest along with the Waterloo nickel project.

The project is relatively under-explored, with the greenstone obscured by younger cover, however limited drilling indicates the presence of ultramafic within the project area.