Broken Hill Prospecting (ASX:BPL) has announced a maiden resource estimate at its Copi North heavy mineral sands deposit in New South Wales. The first resource estimate contains 11.6 million tonnes with approximately 3.75% ilmenite, 0.75% rutile and 0.8% zircon.
Using the approximate current market values for those minerals, the project now contains 435,000 tonnes ilmenite, 87,000 tonnes rutile and 92,000 tonnes zircon for a total market value of approximately $200M. That’s still not a lot, but at least the first estimate is a pretty decent one, and Broken Hill could try to expand the resource from here on. In another resource update, the Magic Heavy Minearl Sands project in NSW also contains 15 million tonnes at an average grade of 3.7% heavy minerals consisting of 62% ilmenite, 14% zircon and 6% rutile, containing 344,000 tonnes of ilmenite, 33,000 tonnes rutile and 77,700 tonnes of zircon for an additional market calue of US$153M (or approximately A$200M), so Broken Hill has two irons in the fire now.
Broken Hill plans to release a scoping study and pre-feasibility study by the end of this year, but we’re not sure this will attract much market attention as the deposit is still quite small and even if Broken Hill would be able to triple the size, it still would be a relatively small deposit. However, the high-grade zones indicate a smaller-scale and high-grade mine plan could work, but let’s first wait to see the numbers.
> Click here to go to Broken Hill’s website
Disclosure: The author holds no position in Broken Hill. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
