Special Report: Strike has completed sampling of hematite rich detrital mineralisation that could be a potential source of low-cost, high-grade iron ore.
Samples of material from 50 pits that were excavated along the northern side of the hematite ridge at its Paulsens East project in Western Australia have been sent to ALS Laboratories in Perth for assay work.
These pits stretch out over a 1.5km strike and cover an area of about 8.1ha where surface detrital material is visible.
Strike Resources (ASX:SRK) noted that detritals were encountered in pits varying in depth from 0.25 metre and up to 3 metres deep in places, with the depth typically increasing further away from the base of the hematite ridge.
Previous laboratory testing of samples resulted in the production of a product grading 60 per cent iron with a mass recovery of 83 per cent from crushing to 32mm and simple wet screening at +1mm size.
Additionally, this material has the potential to add considerable value to the project as it is not included in the current resource of 9.6Mt grading 61.6 per cent iron ore, which is already an attractive direct shipping ore project.
Simple, low-cost iron ore
Strike had previously noted that the detrital iron ore material is formed by weathering and erosion of outcropping iron mineralisation.
As such, this material is already broken and reduced in size, resulting in very low strip ratios with no drilling or blasting required.
Costs of producing iron ore from detrital material is expected to be low as mining will involve simple excavation using bulldozers and front-end loaders while processing will involve minor crushing and simple dry or wet screening.
As a bonus, part of the detrital area sits partially over the area of the open pit designed for the proposed main Paulsens East mine and was previously considered to be waste.
Notable examples of successful detrital mining in WA include Mt Newman and Brockman 2 Detritals Mine.
This article was developed in collaboration with Strike Resources, 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.