MMS.V also had Iron starting to go... Australian iron ore projects
Macarthur Minerals' iron ore projects are located on mining tenements covering approximately 62 square kilometres located 175 km northwest of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Within the tenements, at least 35 km strike extent of outcropping banded iron formation (BIF) occurs as low ridges, surrounded by intensely weathered and mostly unexposed granites, basalts and ultramafic rocks.
The iron ore projects consist of two distinct mineral projects:
- The Ularring hematite project: encompassing hematite iron ore, to be marketed as potential direct shipping and/or beneficiated iron ore;
- The Moonshine magnetite project: encompassing magnetite iron ore, to be marketed as a beneficiated magnetite concentrate.
The company has been maintaining the core iron ore projects' assets and they remain valuable assets having previously spent over $60-million to develop them, including the hematite project to a shovel-ready stage. There is real potential for the iron ore projects to add significant value with the recovery of global iron ore markets.
Since July, 2006, Macarthur Minerals has drilled 1,841 reverse circulation percussion drill holes (142,443 metres) and 49 diamond holes (4,170 metres) targeting iron mineralisation associated with BIF units. Exploration at both Ularring hematite and Moonshine magnetite projects has been sufficient to allow the estimation of mineral resources for both projects.
The Ularring hematite project's mineral resource consists of an indicated 54.46 million tonnes at 47.2 per cent iron (Fe) and inferred 25.99 million tonnes at 45.4 per cent Fe (1). Macarthur Minerals published a prefeasibility study in 2012, reporting mineral reserves (2).
The company has received approval to develop an iron ore mine for the Ularring hematite project and associated infrastructure at the project location under the Environmental Protection Act 1986 and the Environmental and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
The inferred mineral resource estimate for the Moonshine magnetite project was initially prepared by CSA Global Pty. Ltd. (3) and was updated by Snowden Mining Industry Consultants, with an inferred mineral resource consisting of 1,316 million tonnes at 30.1 per cent Fe (4).
A preliminary assessment report was prepared on the Moonshine magnetite project by Snowden Mining Industry Consultants in 2011 (5).