Astute Metals makes high-grade heavy mineral sands acquisition

Astute Metals (ASX: ASE) has completed its strategic acquisition of the Fouracres tenement located adjacent to its Governor Broome minerals sands project in southern Western Australia.

The company revealed plans to acquire the tenement in July as part of its moves to value add to its flagship Governor Broome project and the deal is now finalised with all conditions precedent met.

Fast-track plans

The closing of the sale has positioned Astute to fast-track further work at Governor Broome which is already estimated to contain a substantial total JORC Mineral Resource of 127 million tonnes of mineral sands at a grade of 4.3%.

Planned new work at the mineral sands project includes a Q1 2024 Scoping Study, with the company now in the process of advancing pre-requisite works including mineral assemblage analysis for the recent Jack Track deposit in-fill drilling program and the release of a mineral resource estimate by year end.

The company is also planning to undertake a marketing study for mineral sands products and to undertake bulk sample testwork from the Jack Track deposit.

Strategic development step

In announcing the acquisition, executive chairman, Tony Leibowitz, said the Fouracres property is a further strategic step in advancing the Governor Broome Project and crystallising its value.

“The acquisition adds nearly 1 million tonnes of high-grade resources, which contain high- value titanium minerals and zircon.”

“This strategic acquisition adds significant value to the project, building critical mass and enhancing the high-grade resource base that will be included in the scoping study due for delivery early next year.”

Well located near key infrastructure

The Governor Broome Project is located approximately 135km by sealed road south of the port of Bunbury, while Fouracres is located directly along strike to the south-east of the company’s Jack Track heavy mineral deposit.

Jack Track is currently estimated to contain a high-value heavy mineral assemblage of approximately 66.5% primary ilmenite (58% titanium dioxide – TiO2), 14.5% secondary ilmenite (including approximately 8.5% leucoxene), 4.5% rutile, 10.5% zircon, and 0.8% monazite – for an overall 96.5% valuable heavy mineral content.

The titanium minerals have an average composition of 63% titanium dioxide – TiO2.

Fouracres contains high-value resource

Fouracres has been identified to contain an indicated resource with a very high grade of 11.4% heavy minerals comprising 75% ilmenite, 3% secondary ilmenite, 4% leucoxene/rutile, and 8% zircon for a 90% valuable heavy mineral content. The ilmenite has a high TiO2 content of 60%.

Historic exploration at Fouracres included the use of air-core drilling by Cable Sands during 1991.

It was again explored by Cable Sands during 1995 by BQ air-core drilling. A total of 201 vertical holes, with largely on 20m spacings, were drilled.

Georgina work now underway

Meanwhile, company has hit-the-ground running the start-up of new exploration program at its central Georgina tenement, EL33375, in the Northern Territory.

The company has commenced an Ambient Noise Tomography geophysical survey over the highly prospective licence.

This is the first survey of its kind to utilise Fleet Space Technologies “ExoSphere” system in the frontier IOCG-prospective East Tennant region.

“Drilling to date has indicated excellent potential for a significant copper-gold deposit within the central tenement area,” Mr Leibowitz said.

“Data from this new ambient noise tomography survey, which is supported by a co-funding grant from the NT Government, will allow the Astute technical team to refine existing geophysical information and narrow in on drill targets, providing an elegant solution to the challenge of exploring for a world-class deposit under cover.”

Survey covers 14km

The new survey will involve a planned 192 survey points stretching across a 14km survey axis incorporating previous drilling, including two National Drilling Initiative drill holes.

Upon completion of the survey, surfaces of the two broad cover sequences of the Georgina Basin limestones and Kalkarindji flood basalt will be established over the survey area.

Astute will then incorporate these results to help construct a series of constrained geophysical inversion models for gravity and magnetic data, providing greater insight into basement geophysical anomalies that may be characteristic of IOCG-style mineralisation and warrant drill testing.

ExoSphere Technology breakthrough

The ExoSphere solution provides 3D mapping of the subsurface at greater depths and increases accuracy in drilling targets via ambient noise tomography and is considered a less expensive route to finding critical mineral deposits.

The sensors are deployed in a survey area and leverage real-time passive seismic methods to ‘scan’ the land beneath in search for minerals.

This is enabled through non-invasive Ambient noise tomography which listens to seismic waves.

The data is rapidly processed and transmitted through Fleet’s low power satellite network to create a 3D model of the area in near real-time.