Mining

Heavy Minerals announces 59% increase to inferred resource estimate at Mozambique project

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Heavy Minerals ASX HVY mineral sands resource increased Inhambane JORC

Heavy Minerals’ new resource estimate at its Inhambane project now totals 90Mt at 3% total heavy minerals.

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Heavy Minerals (ASX: HVY) has announced a 59% increase to the inferred mineral resource at its Inhambane heavy mineral sands project in southern Mozambique.

The new estimate sits at 90 million tonnes at 3% total heavy minerals (THM) and takes into account an additional 30.3 square kilometres of prospective tenure secured by the company adjacent to the 4.4 billion tonne Jangamo joint venture project owned by Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) and Savannah Resources.

The new ground includes a mineral resource defined during Heavy Minerals’ maiden aircore drilling program in 2014.

The company plans to conduct metallurgical testing of stored samples from that program with a view to supplying sufficient material quantities to conduct scoping study testwork and develop a process flowsheet for expected mineral products.

The work will help deliver an understanding of the pathway forward to commercial development.

Mineral assemblage

Inhambane’s updated estimate comprises 2.7Mt of contained THM, up from the previous 1.7Mt.

The mineral assemblage is dominated by ilmenite (60%) and features credits of zircon (5%), rutile (2%) and leucoxene (4%).

Mineral sands have recently been subject to significant increases with benchmark ilmenite pricing rising approximately 60% since late 2020 to US$350 per tonne (A$499/t).

Zircon pricing has also jumped considerably to now command around US$1,500/t (A$2,140/t).

Heavy Minerals said the increase in resource pricing justified a reduction in the resource cut-off grade used for reporting the Inhambane estimate, from a historical 2% THM to 1.7% THM.

New ground

Heavy Minerals’ mining application in Mozambique has been amended to include the new ground which was previously ceded when the company transitioned an exploration licence to a mining licence application.

The ceding complied with National Institute of Mines regulations whereby application boundaries must be rounded to the nearest 10 seconds.

A subsequent application resulted in the mining licence being extended to the south and the west to include an area previously drilled by Heavy Minerals.

The updated resource estimate is contained within a relatively small portion of the mining license application.