MinRex Resources delivers maiden cobalt resource for Pacific Express project

MinRex Resources (ASX: MRR) has released a maiden cobalt resource for the Pacific Express project in New South Wales just a few months after divulging its acquisition plans.

Compliant to the JORC 2012 code, the company delivered an inferred resource estimate of 697,000 tonnes grading at 1157 parts per million of cobalt, 9043ppm of nickel and 39.5ppm of scandium at the Pacific Highway prospect within the project.

This translates to contained metal of 806t of cobalt, 6301t of nickel and 27.5t of scandium, MinRex stated.

Compared to the historic mineral resource, reported under the JORC 1996 code by previous owner Jervois Mining (ASX: JRV), most of the contained metal in the current inferred resource is within the high-grade cobalt mineralisation zones defined by MinRex’s geology team.

The company had announced its intention to acquire three projects – Pacific Express in NSW, as well as Knight and Dragon in Western Australia – in late March.

The JORC-compliant resource marks the completion of the pre-acquisition due diligence on the Pacific Express project, with MinRex’s geology team delivering a positive recommendation to the board.

“Of significance is the cobalt grade, which the geology team believes ranks highly when compared with Australian peers, and the potential to materially expand the resource size with more exploration work followed by a targeted drilling program,” MinRex executive director Simon Durack said.

An initial exploration program will target the Pacific Highway prospect, where high-grade cobalt intersections grading up to 6000ppm of cobalt have been confirmed.

MinRex said its geology team has now turned its focus to completing due diligence on the two WA projects, Knight and Dragon.

Shares in the company were sitting 12.24% higher at A$0.055 by early afternoon trade.