Ivanhoe Australia's wholly-owned subsidiary, Ivanhoe Cloncurry Mines, holds 100% title to the Mount Dore Project.

The property hosts three defined copper mineralisation zones consisting of a copper oxide dominant zone in the south of the property (Mount Dore South), a mixed copper and polymetallic oxide and sulphide zone in the north of the property (Mount Dore North) as well as an underlying copper and polymetallic sulphide zone in the north of the property. This underlying zone also contains a localised high grade molybdenum-rhenium mineralisation; the Merlin deposit, which in turn contains the Little Wizard deposit. Further information on each of Merlin and Little Wizard is provided separately.

Geology

The Mount Dore project is situated within the meta-sedimentary rocks of the Proterozoic Kuridala Foundation to the west of and below the Mount Dore granite body shown in Figure 1. High grade surface-enriched copper was mined from Mount Dore in the early 1900s, however, total recorded production to 1961 was only 5.9 tonnes of copper. Diamond drilling in 1957 showed the copper mineralisation to extend at depth, with hole DDH-06 intersecting 8.8 metres at 1.3% Cu from 49.7 m. Exploration undertaken from 1975 extended the known mineralisation.

The Mount Dore project is predominantly a secondary copper deposit within the Kuridala Formation. Copper--dominant mineralisation dips to the east beneath the Mount Dore granite body in a zone of about 180 m true thickness and mineralisation is considered to be open to the north where diamond drill holes have discovered primary copper sulphide ores, with potential zinc, silver, gold and molybdenum credits. Surface oxidation of the primary sulphides produced overlapping zones of copper rich minerals dominated by a suite of secondary copper sulphide and copper oxide minerals, as well as native (metallic) copper. The supergene process at Mount Dore involves the conversion of the primary copper and other sulphides to predominately chalcocite followed by further oxidation to produce chrysocolla, native copper, cuprite and pseudomalachite.


Figure 1: 3D Long section looking north west through Mount Dore deposit showing deeper intersection in the polymetallic zone to the north.

The Merlin deposit is situated to the west of and below the Mount Dore granite body (see Figure 2).


Figure 2 - 3D Long section through Mount Dore deposit showing relative position of the Merlin deposit.

Mineral Resource Estimate

In August 2010, a JORC and NI 43-101 compliant Indicated and Inferred mineral resource was reported after estimation by Golders Associates Pty Ltd (this was an update of earlier estimates by Qualitative Group in 2008 and 2009):

Cut-off	Region	Classification	Mt	Mo %	Re ppm	Cu %	Zn %	Pb %	Ag ppm	Au ppm	Co ppm	Density t/m3
Mo ≥0.3	Little Wizard	Indicated	15 kt	6.49	83.9	2.29	0.00	0.01	25.0	0.63	21	2.38
	Merlin	Indicated	6.5	1.34	23.3	0.33	0.14	0.02	8.3	0.08	81	2.62
		Inferred	0.2	0.85	15.1	0.44	0.24	0.02	8.2	0.13	91	2.67
	Merlin Total	Indicated	6.5	1.35	23.4	0.33	0.14	0.02	8.3	0.08	81	2.62
		Inferred	0.2	0.85	15.1	0.44	0.24	0.02	8.2	0.13	91	2.67
Cu ≥0.25	Mount Dore North Upper	Indicated	25.3	0.01	0.0	0.44	0.49	0.09	6.4	0.10	72	2.62
		Inferred	22.9	0.01	0.0	0.40	0.62	0.12	7.4	0.11	71	2.65
	Mount Dore South	Indicated	47.2	0.00	0.0	0.63	0.07	0.01	3.9	0.07	65	2.49
		Inferred	15.4	0.00	0.0	0.55	0.18	0.03	6.4	0.11	98	2.58
	Mount Dore North lower	Indicated	14.0	0.02	0.2	0.52	0.36	0.04	7.8	0.13	82	2.66
		Inferred	19.5	0.01	0.1	0.50	0.30	0.06	6.6	0.11	118	2.66
	Total	Indicated	86.5	0.01	0.1	0.55	0.24	0.04	5.3	0.09	70	2.55
		Inferred	57.9	0.01	0.1	0.47	0.39	0.07	6.9	0.11	94	2.63

This resource contains both secondary and primary mineralisation and is categorised as:

• 57 million tonnes of secondary mineralisation at 0.59% copper which is amenable to heap leaching; and
• 88 million tonnes of copper dominate primary mineralisation, which forms the basis of the Mount Dore polymetallic Mineral Resource (Cu, Au, Zn, Pb, Co, Ag).

This resource may be recovered by both open pit and underground methods. Once a clearer idea is obtained as to the likely mining method to be used a revision of the resources will be required to reflect the varying economic cut-off grades needed to support each method.

The estimate of Mount Dore's total contained metal in both the copper and polymetallic projects is:

• 750,000 tonnes (1,655 million pounds) of copper;
• 430,000 tonnes of zinc;
• 460,000 ounces of gold and;
• 27 million ounces of silver.

Of this the Mount Dore SXEW heap leach project has a total contained metal inventory of approximately 340,000 tonnes of copper.

Mount Dore mineralisation now stretches for over 2.5 km (See figures 2 and 3) along strike and continues north over the top of the Merlin mineralisation and down dip to the east.


Figure 3: Geology plan of Mount Dore deposit showing relative position of the oxide and sulphide zones & Merlin deposit.

The Mount Dore Polymetallic Mineral Resource, which encapsulates the deeper sulphide mineralisation in the system, remains open at depth and to the north east and has been "incidentally" defined during drilling of Merlin (Figure 2). A dedicated exploration campaign is required to evaluate the upside potential of this already substantial resource which contains a broad suite of metals.

The currently defined Mount Dore system resource estimate, including the Merlin deposit, now contains almost 140 million tonnes of Mineral Resources in three separate projects. All of these projects continue to demonstrate the potential for resource upside.

Development

The planned Mount Dore heap-leach & SX-EW facility, will be used as a central oxide processing facility for treating both the Mount Dore resource and other identified deposits. Project design on the Mount Dore heap leach facility has reached a detailed stage.

In 2008 Ivanhoe Australia commenced a series of studies into the potential to recover copper from the copper oxides and transitional sulphides by open pit mining and conventional heap leach, SXEW methods.

The elements of these technical studies were:

• Six large scale column leach tests (four completed) which have indicated copper recoveries of between 91.7% and 98.3% after 120 days of leaching from a near-surface material
• Preliminary cost studies for ore processing
• Conceptual engineering of the project
• Preliminary infrastructure studies

The quality of the engineering studies for the proposed leach pad designs, crushing and stacking systems, SX-EW plants are of a high standard and are not expected to require significant modification between the Scoping Study and Feasibility Study design.

A Scoping Study for the Mt Dore Copper Oxide Project will be completed in 2010.

Ongoing flotation testwork on the polymetallic primary ores above and east of the Merlin molybdenum deposit, within the Mount Dore deposit, is also being carried out.