STEPHENS-CENTENNIAL PROJECT, BROKEN HILL
Joint venture signed with Teck Cominco

PlatSearch is pleased to advise that a joint venture agreement has been signed with Teck Cominco Australia Pty Ltd (Teck) regarding the Stephens-Centennial project at Broken Hill, NSW.  The agreement provides for Teck to earn a 75% interest in the Stephens-Centennial tenement EL 6132 by completing expenditure of $3,000,000 within 3.5 years.  The tenement is held currently by a group of companies (the Syndicate) consisting of PlatSearch 48%, Triako Resources Limited 40% (ASX Code: TKR) and Eaglehawk Geological Consulting Pty Ltd 12%.  As a minimum commitment, Teck must complete a 500 metre deep drillhole to test a defined gravity target before 30 June 2006 and a geochemical sampling programme using a portable Niton XRF analyser at 20,000 sample sites before 31 December 2006.  Also, Teck will provide a geological interpretation of the entire tenement area using Hyperspectral data (Hymap) made available recently by the NSW government.

The new joint venture agreement replaces an existing farm-out agreement between the Syndicate and Sipa Exploration NL (ASX Code: SRI).  SRI is also a signatory of the new agreement.

The Stephens-Centennial tenement covers a large (213 square kilometres) and highly prospective area of Broken Hill Group rocks that is centrally located in the Broken Hill Block, between 5 and 20 kilometres west and north-west of the Broken Hill “Line of Lode”.  The tenement embraces many important early lead-zinc-silver workings including Peppertree, Stephens Trig, Centennial, Nine Mile and Hidden Treasure where some of the best drill intersections in the Broken Hill Block, outside the main “Line of Lode”, have been encountered.  Most previous drilling is relatively shallow with anomalous intersections open at depth.  There is a prominent gravity anomaly in the northern part of the tenement that is favourably located with respect to the trend of known mineralisation and the prospective stratigraphy.  This anomaly will be the target for Teck’s first drillhole.

Elsewhere in the tenement, the proposed geochemical programme will cover most of the tenement area (except for areas covered by transported soils where the technology would be ineffective) with very detailed soil sampling.  The Syndicate has the right to select 10,000 of the 20,000 sample sites to be analysed.  PlatSearch expects that this work will generate a large number of new drilling targets.

By 31 December 2006 Teck must commit to incur cumulative expenditures of $500,000 by 30 June 2007 (which will include a cumulative 3,000 metres of drilling) to stay in the joint venture. Thereafter, Teck must commit to cumulative expenditures of $1,500,000 by 30 June 2008 and $3,000,000 by 30 June 2009.