106 - The International Resource Journal

68 AUSTRALIA Alara ResourcesAll these factors considered, it’s no wonderSaudi Arabia is making a name for itself as asignificant mining location. In the last year alone,Alara has done 33,000 metres of drilling in thecountry, in addition to the 45,000 metres done bythe Saudi government.Washihi ProjectAnother of Alara’s base metals projects lies inOman, which Madan calls a “culturally aliveplace” with a “very good environment”. Alara’sobjective here is to delineate a core resource atthe Washihi Copper-Gold Project and use this todevelop a 500,000 tonne per annum throughputmining and beneficiation operation, takingadvantage of the country’s low fuel costs. Havingbegun only just over a year ago, the WashihiProject is young but Madan is nonetheless confidentof its eventual success.“It is small-scale for the time being, but itwill result in a cash flow with a relatively lowcapital investment and an early payback ofcapital based on a recently completed scopingstudy,” he says. “That’s doable once we settledown. In the meantime, we’ve started to applyfor environmental and mining licence approvaland are hoping to get them this year.Alara’s Oman copper-gold projects arelocated in a region with several examples ofvolcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) copperdeposits, which is why Alara is targeting discoveryand development of copper and goldthere. Washihi has a JORC inferred resourceof 6.9 million tonnes at 0.76 per cent copperand 0.16g/t gold and an indicated resource of2.1 million tonnes at 0.70 per cent copper and0.17g/t gold. The JORC resource was estimatedprior to recent successful extensions with inter-