Iron Road Limited (ASX:IRD) Central Eyre Iron Project Exceeds 2 Billion Tonnes

Perth, Dec 12, 2011 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Iron Road Limited (ASX:IRD) is pleased to announce a resource upgrade at the Central Eyre Iron Project (CEIP), with the Mineral Resources increasing in size from 1.33Bt to 2.10Bt. The upgrade comes as part of an ongoing Mineral Resource expansion programme at the Murphy South deposit.

Highlights

- Iron Road delivers cumulative upgrade to South Australia's largest iron ore Mineral Resource, following drilling to expand the resource model for further mining study purposes.

- Increase in the global Mineral Resources at Central Eyre Iron Project from 1.33Bt to 2.10Bt, with 1.11Bt in the indicated category.

- Upgrade delivered as part of ongoing Mineral Resource expansion drilling at Murphy South.

- Stage VI expansion drilling adds 770Mt to the existing 1.01Bt Mineral Resource estimate (compiled in accordance with the JORC Code) report for Murphy South for a total of 1.78 billion tonnes, with corresponding significant increase in project value.

- Stage VI Mineral Resource estimate of 770Mt @ 16.1% iron compares favourably to the previously disclosed exploration target for the programme of 500-800Mt magnetite gneiss with a grade of 16-18% iron1.

- Stage VII drilling programme at Rob Roy (Murphy South eastern extension) is currently in progress with an exploration target across the 11 traverses of 400-700Mt magnetite gneiss with an estimated grade of 16-18% iron.

- At the Hambidge prospect an exploration target of 800Mt-1,000Mt magnetite gneiss with a grade of 15-18% iron has been estimated.

- Focus is now on delivering the Definitive Feasibility Study currently underway and securing long term funding for the project.

The Mineral Resource estimate was calculated by Coffey Mining and is summarised in the table below (see link at the bottom of the release). Full details can be found in Attachment 2 (see link at the bottom of the release).

With the establishment of over two billion tonnes in Mineral Resources at CEIP, Iron Road continues to demonstrate the necessary size and scale of resource to underpin the capital required for a potential long life initial 12.4Mtpa high grade iron concentrate export operation and the development of associated export infrastructure.

The Mineral Resource upgrade at Murphy South significantly increases project value, as noted in the Prefeasibility Study completed in June 2011 and illustrated below (see link at the bottom of the release).

Prefeasibility test work demonstrated that a high quality concentrate grading 67% iron may be produced at Murphy South using a coarse grind size of -106µm. This product is suited as a high grade blast furnace sinter feed with low impurities.

Iron Road Managing Director, Mr Andrew Stocks, said that the CEIP had now more than established the necessary size to underpin a large scale, long life project.

"The amount of iron resource at CEIP is now more than sufficient to underpin a long life project - having adequate resources is now a resolved challenge for the project," said Mr Stocks.

"We will continue to add Resources from ongoing drilling programmes, but the key tasks ahead for the company are now delivering the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) currently underway, as well securing long term funding for the project," said Mr Stocks.

For the complete announcement including figures, please view the following link:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-IRD-570980.pdf

Contact

Andrew Stocks Managing Director Iron Road Limited T: +618-9200-6020 http://www.ironroadlimited.com.au