Over 6 Million Tonnes Heavy Mineral Estimated At Image Resources NL (ASX:IMA) Cyclone And Cyclone Extended
Perth, July 23, 2010 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Image Resources NL (
ASX:IMA) (PINK:IMREF) has completed its maiden resource estimate for the Cyclone Extended heavy mineral (HM) project in the Eucla Basin, which abuts the Cyclone deposit held by Diatreme Resources (ASX:DRX). Following a data swap with Diatreme, Image has completed a global estimate for both Cyclone and Cyclone Extended in order to properly set its Cyclone Extended resource in context with the whole mineral deposit. The estimates presented here are solely those of Image, and are not necessarily endorsed by Diatreme, which is preparing its own resource estimate for the project. The tables (see link at the bottom) summarise the resource estimates by category for various HM cut-off grades. These resources have been estimated in accordance with the JORC guidelines.
Figure 1 (see link at the bottom) shows the outline of mineralisation at a 1%HM cut-off, which consists of two arms that total 13km in aggregate strike length and which vary from 400m - 600m in width. The deposit ranges in thickness from 1 to 26 metres. The mineralised area is large at over 7.4sq km in extent, equivalent to an area 100 times the size of the MCG. Typical cross sections of Cyclone Extended are shown in Figure 2 (see link at the bottom).
Diatreme has previously estimated its Cyclone resource at 98.4Mt at 2.88%HM (1%HM cut-off) containing 2.8Mt of heavy mineral (DRX ASX release of 23 September 2009). The variance from the estimates is mainly a result of the inclusion of more recent grade data in the Image estimate of the global resource, particularly from the dune deposits which overlie the resource and which are now recognised to contain significant mineralisation. The presence of mineralisation in the dune material has the potential to significantly improve the project economics in reducing overburden removal and by increasing the mineral inventory. Clearly, the resources at Cyclone and Cyclone Extended offer a number of possible development options ranging from lower tonnage and higher grades to large tonnage and lower grades, depending on how the dune material and cut-off grade is treated.
At Cyclone Extended and based on wide spaced scout drilling, Image has identified an area of 30sq km prospective for further discoveries. In addition, some of the mineralisation at Cyclone Extended has not been closed off and further drilling may result in further increases to the resource.
The interpreted geology used to constrain the global resource model comprises 5 main elements; the Dune, Beach, Surf, Near Shore and Offshore zones. The combined deposit is interpreted to be a series of regressive shorelines where the Beach, Surf, Near Shore and Offshore sediments were deposited. The Dune sediments on top of the Beach zone were deposited later. These geological units have been identified on the basis of sedimentary features such as grain size, sorting and HM grade and can be traced throughout the deposit.
Indicated and Inferred Resources have been estimated for each of the main geological units at Cyclone and Cyclone Extended using a wire framed block model and inverse distance squared method. At the 1%HM cut-off the Dune, Beach, Surf and Near Shore zones contain 13%, 48%, 12% and 27% respectively of the resource tonnes. The Beach and Surf zones contain the higher HM grades. The bulk density was determined by formula, and averages 1.733t/m3 for the 1%HM cut-off resource.
For the complete Image Resources announcement including figures and tables, please refer to the following link:
http://www.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/63373-ASX-IMA-498476.pdf
About Image Resources NL
Image Resources NL (ASX:IMA) is a mineral sands focused mining company operating an open-cut mine and ore processing facility at its 100%-owned, high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring Project, located 80km north of Perth in the infrastructure rich North Perth Basin.
Boonanarring is arguably one of the highest grade, zircon-rich mineral sands projects in Australia. Construction and project commissioning were completed on-time and on-budget in 2018. Production commenced in December 2018 and HMC production ramped-up to exceed name-plate capacity in only the second month of operation.
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