Akora Resources completes ground magnetic survey at Satrokala iron ore project

Akora Resources (ASX: AKO) has completed an initial magnetic survey at its wholly-owned Satrokala iron ore project in Madagascar.

The ground-based survey covered just 10 kilometres of the potential 30km of prospective iron mineralisation strike previously identified at the project.

It employed three magnetometer units and a team of seven geologists who walked the extent of the tenements under the supervision of Australian company Planetary Geophysics.

The survey equipment and strategy was the same as that used by Akora at its flagship Bekisopa iron ore project, situated about 40 kilometres to the east of Satrokala.

In mid-July, Akora revealed significant tonnage increases in an updated mineral resource estimate for the southern zone at Bekisopa.

It included 5.54 million tonnes of indicated and inferred resource at 60.35% iron, for a 34% uplift of 4.42 million tonnes indicated at 60.9% iron.

High-grade assays

Managing director Paul Bibby said the Satrokala magnetic survey followed high-grade rock chip assays reported in June last year.

“Those rock chips returned grades of more than 64% iron and confirmed the need for further geological exploration… this survey is the next step towards confirming a potentially extensive iron region at the project,” he said.

“Satrokala is potentially a major component of our strategy to produce cleaner, high-grade iron ore for traditional steelmaking in blast furnaces and for the manufacture of greener steel in direct reduced iron-electric arc furnaces which typically require grades above 67%.”

Airborne survey

Akora had originally planned to conduct an airborne magnetic survey at Satrokala however it was unable to obtain the clearances needed to import a helicopter and associated equipment.

The company ended up using ground magnetic survey equipment, employing the same techniques carried out in late-2019 at Bekisopa.

The ground equipment was delivered into the capital city of Antananarivo and the survey team mobilised to the southern Satrokala tenements in late October.

The team walked the ground to obtain the survey data and covered only the area where previous rock chip sampling was completed in June.

The remaining parts of the Satrokala and Tratramarina tenements are still to be surveyed.