PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 2.5-million tonnes, at 23.5% total heavy minerals, has been declared at the Northern Beaches of the Tormin mineral sands operation, in South Africa.
“This represents yet another important milestone for our company. The delivery of a maiden resource at the Northern Beaches effectively doubles the beach resource tonnes of this very high-grade placer style beach system and its unique historical replenishment characteristics,” said Mineral Commodities executive chairperson Mark Caruso.
“To date, we have mined over 12.3-million tonnes from adjoining Tormin Beaches which had an original mineral resource estimate of 2.7-million tonnes. The timing of this resource aligns perfectly with our strategy to commence mining the Northern Beaches as soon as our pending Section 102 Expanded Mining Right application is granted.”
After the grant of the Expanded Mining Right, the development of the Northern Beaches will be relatively straightforward, Caruso said, starting with the relocation of one of the current primary beach concentrators to Beach 10.
This was a low capital cost option for the Northern Beaches development, with project engineering and planning already under way for bringing the Northern Beaches into production once the application has been granted.