Echelon Resources Limited has revealed to stock exchange agreements to acquire 39 iron ore tenements over an area of 4100 square kilometers. Echelon describes the Northam prospect as "conceptual" and "grass roots", meaning any prospect of mining is a considerable way off.

The Northam project consists of three exploration licenses and it extends roughly from the Grass valley area to Quellington. The exploration focus is on the mapped Archaean banded iron formation BIF, ore in layers, horizons within the Western Gneiss Terrane that may have been upgraded to resource grade material.