Heavy Minerals completes maiden drilling at Port Gregory garnet project
Heavy Minerals’ maiden drilling campaign was extended to cover 40% more ground than the initial exploration target.
Exploration company Heavy Minerals (ASX: HVY) has completed a maiden drilling campaign at its wholly-owned Port Gregory garnet project in Western Australia.
The campaign comprised 187 holes for a total 5653.5 metres and was extended to cover 40% more ground than the original exploration target footprint.
Several of the extension holes exhibited heavy mineral grades and final assay results are expected within the next four weeks.
JORC resource
Heavy Minerals believes the assay, assemblage and metallurgy results will be sufficient to generate a maiden JORC resource over the extended mineralised area.
The resource is expected to be released during the current quarter and will form the backbone of a scoping study for Port Gregory which will commence in April.
Executive director and chief executive officer Nic Matich said the maiden drilling results could pave the way for a strong year.
“Being on track and on budget for our maiden JORC resource sets us up for a transformative which has the potential to progress our company along the path from being an explorer to a potential developer,” he said.
Making moves
Since its ASX debut in September, Heavy Minerals has been making moves to define a potential resource at Port Gregory.
The project consists of six tenements totalling 227.28 square kilometres over approximately 50 kilometres of land north of Geraldton and is prospective for industrial minerals.
Previous exploration carried out on the tenements has defined an exploration target of between 3.5 million tonnes and 4.5Mt in-situ garnet grading between 3.5% and 4.5% heavy minerals.
Increased shareholding
This week, mining investment company Metal Tiger (ASX: MTR) announced it would increase its shareholding in Heavy Minerals from 3.41% to 5.68%.
The London-based firm is now one of six substantial equity holders in the Australian junior, and is part of the Top 20 with a combined 60.89% shareholding.
“Since our ASX listing, we have seen significant interest from institutional and sophisticated investors,” Mr Matich said.
“Having Metal Tiger increase its holding from a 3.41% investment at the initial public offering is a strong endorsement of our projects and our positive progress to date.”