Newcastle-based mining company Mineral Innovations will decide this week whether they will apply to the NSW Government to further assess a deposit of magnetite found in the Allworth area which includes Ironstone Mountain.

Managing director Greg Irvine-Brown said the company was assessing data from seven test holes drilled by the company on private property a month ago.

The deposit of the highly magnetic mineral was originally discovered by renowned Australian geologist Edgeworth David in the late 1800’s.

Magnetite is an iron oxide historically prized for its magnetic properties and now used by industry to purify coal, and make iron and steel.

Mr Irvine-Brown confirmed that if present in viable quantity and quality, the magnetite would be mined in an open cut operation and trucked to a processing facility “somewhere in the Hunter Valley.”

“Indications are that this is not a huge deposit, and it would only be a small operation where we’d probably only be mining 100,000 tonnes a year,” he said.

The mine would need a 15-year lifespan to be commercially viable, he said.

Ironstone Mountain Action Group president Amanda Albury said landholders were shocked to discover that a mineral exploration license had been taken out over 24 square kilometres of land on both sides of the Bucketts Way from Forest Glenn Road at Limeburners Creek through to Cromarty Creek at Booral.

“The first that most residents knew about it was in July last year when a property owner from Limeburners Creek phoned to let me know that part of our property was under an exploration license and that there was a meeting about it at Allworth that day,” Mrs Albury said.

“My husband and I door knocked and letter boxed flyers notifying people of the meeting.

“We arrived not realising the mining company would be present, and I was very happy to see about 25 property owners attend the meeting.