Advanced pre-development iron ore project

 – strong potential for early production

 

Location & Infrastructure

• 450 km NE of San Francisco in rural Nevada, in the heart of the most “mining-friendly” state in the USA.

• Access to the project area is east via Interstate 80 from San Francisco to Lovelock and then 38 km south on bitumen and well formed gravel road.

• A rail head is located at Lovelock and the Southern Pacific railway that parallels Interstate 80 connects to four ports in the San Francisco region.

• Power is available within 10 km of site.

• Established bore field on project area for process water.

• Capital costs are potentially insignificant compared to comparable projects within Australia.

• The location of the project in relation to the railway and ports negates the need for significant capital expenditure on transport facilities.

• At the site it is envisaged the only major capital items required will be related to the processing circuit and general mine infrastructure.

Land Title

• The Buena Vista project area covers around 2,780 acres and is held under a combination of patented (private) and unpatented (government) mining claims.

• The area that covers the known deposits is largely over leased private land and is held by the patented claims and former railroad fee-title land, allowing for faster and easier permitting.

• Minor royalties, equivalent to around a 1-1.5% net smelter return, are payable over a number of the patented claims.

Environment

• Project is located in a low rainfall, desert environment.

• History of iron ore mining but there are no existing rehabilitation liabilities.

• No evidence of Native American sites and the project is not on Indian reservation land.

Established Resources

• The project area contains six deposits and two prospects with combined JORC resources and exploration targets of +400 million tonnes of magnetite iron ore.

• US Steel produced substantial historical reserve/resource estimates that are non-JORC compliant.

• Richmond has reviewed the non JORC compliant reserves within two deposits and re-classified them as a JORC Measured resource of 109 million tonnes grading 19.9% magnetic Fe (approximately 23% total Fe) using a 15% magnetic Fe cut off grade (note: magnetic Fe is 85% of total Fe based on statistical analysis of the historic metallurgical test work).

• Richmond has identified JORC compliant exploration targets of 45-55 million tonnes grading 20-22% total Fe within US Steel’s historical pit designs (based on a data base including 314 diamond holes and extensive metallurgical test work and mining studies) and additional exploration targets of 200-250 million tonnes grading 20-22% total Fe (based on more widely spaced drilling and geophysical work undertaken by US Steel) (note the potential quantity and grade of the exploration targets are conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a JORC compliant Mineral Resource and that it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the determination of a Mineral Resource).

• Waste dumps totalling 800,000 tonnes grading around 32% total Fe exist on the project area from mining operations undertaken in the 1950s.

Metallurgy

• Test work has shown the Buena Vista magnetite ores are metallurgically simple and amenable to normal magnetic concentration methods.

• The ore easily beneficiates to a concentrate grade of +66% total Fe using a grind to 325 mesh followed by wet magnetic separation.

• The concentrate is free of major impurities except for possible vanadium. Vanadium is present as inclusions within the magnetite with reported grades between 0.02-0.04%.

Geology & Mining History

• The Buena Vista deposits are located within a Middle Jurassic volcanic – plutonic complex with parts of the area obscured by Tertiary rhyolitic flows.

• Magnetite mineralisation is associated with mafic intrusives, which are both strata and structurally bound and intensely sodic altered with the development of scapolite and albite.

• Mineralisation is open to at least a depth of 200 metres below the historic open pit designs.

• Buena Vista was discovered in 1898 and around 1 million tonnes of ore was mined from the project area in the 1950s. The majority of production went to Japan as direct shipping ore.

• Modern exploration commenced over the project in the early 1950s with a number of companies completing geological mapping, aeromagnetic surveys, drilling, metallurgical test work, bulk sampling and ore reserve (non-JORC compliant) calculations.

• US Steel are the most recent party to explore the project area, completing a detailed feasibility study in the late 1970s.

• The study outlined 6 individual deposits within the project area, with the large majority of these deposits being diamond drilled on close spaced 50 feet x 200 feet centres. At least 314 diamond holes were completed over the property together with extensive metallurgical test work and mining studies.

• Historic pit designs showed the potential strip ratio of waste to ore was very low at 1:1.

• At this stage, the entire US Steel database has been retrieved including a large amount of diamond drill core and sample pulp residues. To replicate this feasibility study would have cost Richmond US$15-20 million and taken a minimum of three years.

• Based on preliminary studies completed by Richmond, the Company considers two of the deposits contain a significant amount of higher grade mineralisation grading around 35-40% total Fe that is potentially available through selective mining or a re-design of the proposed pit boundaries using a higher grade cut-off.

• Part of the works programme over the next 4-6 months will test the two deposits for a target of 40-50 million tonnes grading between 30-35% magnetic Fe (35-40% total Fe).

Planned Work

• Richmond is well advanced in reviewing the database and has effectively commenced a feasibility study.

• Digitising of drill logs commenced in early February.

• An approximate 2,000m diamond drilling programme is planned for April/May 2010 to provide additional samples for metallurgical test work and test the deposits at depth.

• Discussions with railway, port and power infrastructure providers are scheduled to commence in March/April. Richmond will also investigate the potential to access other ports that can handle +55,000 dwt ships or the possibility of trans-shipment using barges to potentially load +100,000 dwt Capesize ships.

• Mining studies are scheduled to commence in May/June.

• Processing studies are scheduled to commence in May/June. Richmond will also investigate the potential of producing an intermediate concentrate (50-55% total Fe) product for shipment.

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