The Breccia contains hallmark characteristics of being very shallow in the intrusive system including the presence of intrusive sills, abundant vugs with, for example, delicate lead-antimony sulfides (Jamesonite), complex open-cavity fill textures in the breccias. Evidence, along with increase grades with depth for the target group suggest that the current level of shallow drilling is likely to remain above the principal zone of mineralisation. In all cases, the assays reported in MPD003 are significantly higher than those from previous drilling which supports the interpretation that the grades are increasing with depth.

This interpretation can be interpreted to indicate that a much larger mineralised system may lie at depth below the Maneater Breccia. Previous tenement holders came to a similar conclusion but could not reconcile the level of emplacement and therefore relinquished the project. Armed with new geochemical and textural data NMR propose that the main target remains below the current level of drilling.

Intruding into the metasediments are multiple porphyritic felsic and heavily altered (phyllic) dykes. MPD002 for example contains three major intercepts and one small intercept (<1m) of the porphyry suggesting it occurs as a series of fingers intruding into the breccia. At the surface, the contacts between the porphyry and the breccia can be mapped where they are both steeply dipping and also shallow-dipping.

Outcrops 100m to the NW of the drill pad exhibit near horizontal contact between a felsic altered porphyry and the mineralised breccia. In addition to the recently acquired results from drilling, field work on the ground around the Maneater Peak has continued to follow up on existing rock chip samples including sample Q26178 (located 900m south of the current drilling at 267210mE, 8120870mN GDA94) Au 1.07g/t and 1.21g/t (r), Ag 640 ppm, Cu 175 ppm, Pb 7.4%, Zn 1800 ppm, Mo 3.5ppm, Bi 3.7ppm, Sb 2.31%, (Bresser, 1996) and to identify new targets with alteration indicative of base metal mineralisation near to Maneater Peak Breccia. The rocks are heavily iron stained and contain hematite (+/- other weathered sulfides) in veins parallel to the N-S trend of the regional rocks and are located only 750m from current drilling.

The principal target is a mineralised breccia pipe located approximately 100km west of Cairns and 35km northeast of the established mining town of Chillagoe in Northern Queensland. The Maneater Hill Breccia is a proven sulfide-bearing, intrusion-related breccia pipe which occurs as a significant topographic high (Maneater Hill) centrally located within the tenement. Existing information on the breccia pipe points towards a high potential for breccia-hosted copper and gold mineralisation below the predominantly silver, lead and zinc mineralisation identified near surface and in a single diamond drill hole completed in 1995.

Existing assays from historical drilling include silver grades of up to 15.8ppm Ag, copper grades up to 1810ppm Cu, Zinc grades of up to 9330ppm Zn, up to 10ppm Mo, and increasing gold grades up to 0.05ppm Au. The breccia pipe is an irregularly shaped structure approximately 500m long and 250m wide outcropping as a prominent rocky hill. The breccia is hosted within the extensive poly-deformed metasediments of the Hodgkinson Province.

Previous exploration in the area has included soil and rock chip sampling and a single diamond drill hole. The most recent exploration of the tenement was carried out by Renison Goldfields Consolidated over several years until 1996. A single diamond drill hole was completed in 1995 (MPD001 to a depth of 365.8m, Azi 285O, dip 50-53O) which revealed a pyrite-dominated, clast-supported breccia along with abundant sulfides including, but not limited to, galena (lead sulfide), sphalerite (zinc sulfide) and chalcopyrite (iron-copper sulfide) mineralisation.

It has been noted by Bresser, (1996) that "Base metal mineralisation became more prevalent and coarser with depth as pyrrhotite also increased with depth and in areas of intense brecciation". NMR are now confirming that this is true for both diamond drill holes, however, NMR grades are significantly higher (typically more than double) than the historical grades with, for example NMR's highest grades of 2.14g/t Au, 1.4% Zn, 0.5% Sb, 57.1g/t Ag, 0.75% Pb and 0.35% Cu. This contrasts with the historical values of 0.1 g/t Au, 0.9 % Zn, 0.01% Sb, 15.8g/t Ag, 0.3% Pb and 0.18% Cu.

NMR are using existing information combined with new geological knowledge of mineralised breccia systems in Queensland to further explore the potential for copper and gold mineralisation at the Maneater Breccia, below the current level of drilling. NMR has terminated MPD002 at 477.6m due to unfavorable changes to drill hole geometry and has prioritised the drilling of a second hole (MPD003 current drilling) in order to obtain key geometry information and to test the limits of sulfide breccias. MPD003 was completed November at a total depth of 543.3m A well-defined Pb-Zn-Ag dominated zone has already been recognised by previous explorers and now demonstrated in early results from both MPD002 and initial observations from MPD003.

NMR are interpreting this sulfide and metal assemblage as indicative of the top part of a mineralised breccia such as discovered at Mt Wright. The presence of silver, lead, zinc in the drill core and increasing copper near the base of the drill core indicates that the current level of exposure of the Maneater Breccia may be near the upper part of a breccia pipe and the gold and copper mineralisation lies at greater depth, beyond the current limits of drilling or any sampling.