Atlas pays $4m for ten Pilbara iron ore tenements

Atlas Iron Ltd has acquired the iron ore rights to 10 Pilbara tenements, from unlisted tantalum miner Talison Minerals Pty Ltd, for $4 million.

Atlas will acquire 100 per cent of the Fe rights in exchange for payment of $4 million to Talison in Atlas shares upon execution of a formal agreement, which needs to be executed by June 30, 2008 or a later date agreed by both parties.

Talison retains rights to other minerals and is entitled to a 0.5 per cent revenue based royalty in the event that Atlas develops an iron ore resource in excess of 5MT.

The tenements are between 75 and 160 kilometres from Port Hedland, less than 60 kilometres from the Fortescue Metals Group Ltd and BHP Billiton Ltd railways and less than 60 kilometres from the Great Northern Highway.

Some of these tenements adjoin the company's Abydos project.

"This acquisition adds to Atlas' Pilbara interests and provides us with the opportunity to apply our iron ore exploration expertise on an additional 10 tenements in a world class iron ore province" commented Atlas managing director, David Flanagan.

"These tenements are very prospective for iron ore and we look forward to doing a thorough examination of the iron ore potential on these tenements" he added