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Special Report: Fenix continues to find extremely high grades of iron ore outside of the existing resource at its Iron Ridge project.
The latest drill results show thick intercepts like 58.2m at 66.6 per cent and 70m at 64.4 per cent, while grades are as high as 67.8 per cent.
The Iron Ridge project already has an existing inferred resource of 5 million tonnes at 64.1 per cent iron.
Mineral resources are categorised in order of increasing geological confidence as inferred, indicated or measured.
Fenix’s (ASX:FEX) goal is to increase the resource, while maintaining a grade higher than the 62 per cent benchmark level for iron ore — which is a challenge even for the bigger players such as BHP (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO).
The company is also working to shift the resource into the higher confidence indicated category.
65 per cent is a premium grade product, and which Fenix will look to sell at premium prices.
Iron ore prices are continuing their recent run up as processing slows down at Chinese ports in the lead up to Chinese New Year.
Prices are also being impacted following another iron ore mine disaster in Brazil, which has placed pressure on seaborne supply.
The benchmark 62 per cent iron ore price climbed 14.5 per cent over the course of last week to $85.53 a tonne.
The higher grade 65 per cent price rose 13.1 per cent to $100.80 a tonne, reaching a 17-month high last Thursday before edging back slightly.
Fenix says many of the latest drill results represent extensions at depth to the existing resource, which currently extends down to 110m.
The company’s ore has the added benefit of having low impurity levels.
Drilling has identified a shallow south-west dip to the mineralisation, which Fenix says opens up the prospectivity of the western end of the deposit.
High-grade intercepts in this area extend down to 220m.
Fenix is now well placed to deliver an updated resource within the next four to six weeks.
The company will begin metallurgical testwork in the next week.