Akora Resources (ASX: AKO) has released a maiden inferred resource for the southern zones at its Bekisopa iron ore project of 110.2 million tonnes.
Combined with maiden resources for the Central and Northern zones at the project, global inferred resources for Bekisopa now total 194.7Mt containing up to 7.8 million tonnes of weathered zone direct shipping ore.
Of this 41.2Mt comes from the Central Zone and 43.3Mt from the Northern Zone.
The global Bekisopa resource has been calculated at 38.7% DTR (davis tube recovery) to produce an iron concentrate grade of 67.6% at a grind size of 75 micron.
The DSO is at surface over less than 30% of the 6-kilometre strike length and will be added to high-grade outcrop material, increasing the DSO lump and fine.
The Southern Zone has 37.8% DTR producing the same iron grade and micron size suitable for direct reduced iron (DRI) pellet feed as the global estimate.
DRI is expected to be in increasing demand as global iron and steel industries embark on a green de-carbonised future, requiring higher iron feed grades with low impurity levels.
Upside potential
Akora managing director Paul Bibby said maiden resource highlights significant upside potential on the main tenements at Bekisopa.
“This resource is substantial, the product grade is excellent and the potential for significant additional resources and DSO tonnages cannot be underestimated,” he said.
“It is an extremely encouraging result, achieved within 15 months of listing and confirms Bekisopa as a significant new iron ore discovery.”
He said the company initially forecast a resource of around 100Mt from the first 4,000m of drilling at the project last year.
As work progressed, it decided to incorporate drilling originally planned for 2022 into the campaign to minimise costs and maximise the size of the potential resource.
“The outcome has exceeded our expectations and places Bekisopa as a significant resource worthy of further evaluation and development,” Mr Bibby said.
“We are sitting on a project which could potentially deliver high-grade fines and concentrates at relatively coarse sizings after a DSO start-up focused on the high-grade outcrop and weathered zone iron ore formations.”
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