Special Report: Mineral Commodities (ASX:MRC) is ramping up its mineral sands business in South Africa with the “transformational” delineation of a maiden high-grade resource at the Western Strandline.

Mineral Commodities (ASX:MRC) is a leading miner of zircon, rutile, garnet and ilmenite concentrates through its flagship Tormin mineral sands operation in South Africa.

The battery metals and mineral sands producer has published a maiden resource for the Western Strandline, part of the high grade Inland Strand resource area.

The resource of 106 million tonnes at 12.4 per cent Total Heavy Minerals (THM) contains 13 million tonnes in situ Heavy Mineral.

Over 22 Million tonnes at 20.9% THM  of the total resource  is located adjacent to the existing plant and is approved for immediate mining under an existing expanded Mining Right. 85% of the resource in the mining area is classified in the higher confidence Measured and Indicated categories.

Executive chairman Mark Caruso said the maiden resource for Western Strandline was ‘transformational’.

“Historically, we have operated Tormin with a limited life of mine, and in the space of five months we have doubled our placer beach resources and secured this significant conventional resource that will become the pillar of our future mining operations,” he says.

“We have expedited development at the Western Strandline, with mining operations already commenced.

“It is anticipated that the Company will start processing material from the Western Strandline as early as September.

“This resource demonstrates the true potential of what we believe is a world class asset that our Company will be mining for decades to come.”

The company has started a phased development of the Western Strandline mining areas, including topsoil removal, that will initially target near-surface, high-grade areas.

These areas contain grades as high as 90 per cent THM, comprising 7.5 per cent zircon, 1.8 per cent rutile, 34 per cent ilmenite and 34 per cent garnet.

The high-grade THM mineralisation and Valuable Heavy Minerals (“VHM”) assemblage observed in the ‘strand horizons’ from the resource drilling are reminiscent of similar grades and mineral assemblage encountered in the first years of mining the high-grade Tormin Beach areas, which was as high as 55 per cent HM.

Mineral Commodities’ mineral sands tenements in the Western Cape province of South Africa, including its Tormin operation in the central green zone.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Mineral Commodities, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

 

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