Strategic Investments

Metals X has operated a strategy over the past few years to build a diverse portfolio of metal and industrial mineral interests. When opportunities emerge our strategy is to invest directly within the publicly listed or unlisted entity which owns the assets. We consider this provides us with both the flexibility to fund and finance the exploration and development activities in a dedicated manner without the competition for capital from our operations.

Metals X looks to take significant shareholdings and Board representation in these entities such as:

1. Westgold Resources Limited 25.02% (2010: 31.99%);
2. Independence Group NL 3.23% (2010: Nil);
3. Mongolian Resource Company Limited 16.97% (2010: Nil); and
4. Aziana Limited 25.00% (2010: Nil).

Westgold Resources Limited

Westgold Resources Limited (“Westgold”) is an ASX listed (ASX:WGR) gold and base metals exploration company. Its principal focus is on exploring and developing a new gold field at its Rover project near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory and the commencement of gold production from its large tenement holding in the Murchison Goldfields of Western Australia. Westgold currently holds a combined resource of over 3.2 million ounces gold equivalent within these two main projects and is aspiring to become Australia next 200,000 ounce per annum gold equivalent producer.

Central Murchison Gold Project

The Central Murchison Project is located in the Murchison gold fields of Western Australia south of Cue. The project includes the historical production areas of Big Bell, Day Dawn and Cuddingwarra that have collectively produced over 5Moz.

During the year exploration programs continue to progress the Central Murchison Gold Project in Western Australia towards development and production. A successful underground mining study was undertaken which envisages an 800,000 tpa processing facility to produce approximately 100,000 ounces pa. An open pit mining study is also in progress to supplement the underground ore feed. The strategy is to build a centralized processing plant to re-commence mining and production from as early as 2012. A current Total Identified Resource estimate of 2Moz has currently been identified.

Rover Project

The Rover project is located approximately 100Kms south west of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Westgold has been targeting high grade gold and copper deposits similar to the historical mines of the Tennant Creek Goldfield renowned for its exceptional high grade gold and copper mines which produced over 5M ounces of gold and around 0.5Mt of copper metal between the 1930’s to late 1990’s.

The large portfolio of highly prospective tenements within the Rover field contains a number of coincident magnetic and gravity anomalies that are interpreted to signify iron oxide copper gold (“IOCG”) bodies under varying thicknesses (60m-250m) of unconforming transported cover. To date Westgold has focussed most of its attention on two of these targets which have both resulted in the discovery of significant ore bodies referred to as Rover 1 and Explorer 108.

During the year Westgold announced an updated resource at Rover 1 to 6.8 million tonnes at an equivalent gold grade of 5.57g/t for 1.22 million ounces of gold equivalent.

Within the Rover field there are also several other exciting targets that have very similar magnetic and gravity signatures of similar size. It is anticipated that several of the these targets will be drilled over the proceeding year which could add significantly to the economics of the high quality Rover 1 discovery and to the development of a new Australian gold field.

Find out more at Westgold Resources’ Website

Independence Group NL

Independence is an ASX listed (ASX:IGO) Australian diversified explorer, developer and producer. Operations include the Long Nickel mine and the high grade Jaguar VMS Copper, Zinc, and silver mine in Western Australia. Independence also owns 30% of the 3.9Moz Tropicana gold project currently being developed and holds various exploration projects within Australia including the Stockman Copper, Zinc and silver project and the Karlawinda gold project.

During the year Independence successfully completed the off market takeover of Jabiru Metals Limited (“Jabiru”). Metals X Limited participated in the takeover of Jabiru by signing a pre-bid agreement with Independence to sell its 19.99% interest in Jabiru for cash and shares in Independence. The Company received $48,089,540 in cash and 6,558,571 Independence shares as consideration for its 19.99% interest in Jabiru. The Jabiru share sale has resulted in a profit of $55,268,640 for the Company.

Mongolian Resource Corporation Limited

MRC is an Australian listed Mongolian resource company. MRC main two gold projects includes the high grade Kargana (Blue Eyes) Gold Project (85%) and the Sujigtei Gold Project (90%) which are located 7 kms apart. The Blue Eyes deposit has been mined for over 80 years by artisanal miners and currently contains an existing mining operation which is advancing over three levels. Sujigtei was actively explored and developed on 5 levels over 150 vertical meters in the 1960’s by the East German Geological Department and has been worked in recent times by artisanal miners.

MRC is currently targeting a maiden resource at the Blue Eyes and Sujigtei Gold Deposits located within the North Khentei gold belt of Mongolia. This belt includes several historical mines and deposits including the Boroo and Gatsuurt gold mines, Bumbat, Erren, Khargant and Sujigetei gold deposits. Feasibility studies have commenced on the development of these high grade gold deposits and two mining licenses have been granted and the statutory approvals are at an advanced state to recommence mining activities.

Sampling for near surface open pittable gold from outcropping quartz stockwork at Blue Eyes has returned an average of 1.0g/t from 319 samples. Rock chip samples have further highlighted the potential for open pit mineralization returning gold assays of 18.8g/t, 17.9g/t, 9.0g/t and 7.8g/t.

MRC also holds exploration permits covering the Barglit Iron Ore Prospect (100%), the Doshin Thermal Coal Prospect (100%) and various alluvial gold projects at Berleg, Selenge, Ovorhangay, Omnogovi and Bulgan.

Aziana Limited

Aziana’s is an unlisted gold and bauxite explorer in Madagascar which currently undergoing preparations to become a publicly listed company on the ASX. The gold exploration activities are focused on the Central Madagascar Gold Belt (CMGB), Beforona Gold Belt (BGB) and Vohilava- Ampasary Gold Belt (VAGB). Aziana’s gold prospects include large areas where substantial artisanal mining and gold production have occurred and Aziana is the first company to systematically sample, drill and explore these highly prospective gold targets.

In addition, Aziana is also the 99% beneficial owner of the exciting Manantenina Bauxite Prospect in southern Madagascar where exploration to date has shown significant potential for large tonnages of high grade bauxite/gibbsite development.

Aziana has been an active explorer in Madagascar since 2006 and now holds a leading position in gold exploration. In the past 5 years, Aziana has systematically reviewed the 10 main gold belts in the country, completed reconnaissance field works and selectively reduced its tenement portfolio from over 16,000km2 to focus on the current core area of 950km2. Early stage fieldwork has returned highly promising results and Aziana continues to intensify its exploration activities on its core projects.

The CMGB sits within the Ambatolampy Group of rocks and includes approximately half of Madagascar’s known artisanal gold mining sites and Aziana’s key Alakamisy, Antandrokazo and Antakasina gold projects. The BGB lies north-east of the capital and hosts Aziana’s Grigri gold project while the VAGB lies south-east of the capital and hosts Aziana’s Sakaleone gold field.

Metals X believes Aziana is a well-established gold and Bauxite explorer in one of the world’s most untapped mineral provinces.