PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands miner MZI Resources has increased the ore reserve estimate of its Keysbrook project, in Western Australia, by 277%, extending the mine life of the project nearly three-fold from five-and-a-half years to nearly 16 years.
MZI reported on Wednesday that total ore reserves at the Keysbrook project had increased to 72-million tonnes, grading 2.2% total heavy minerals, with the ore reserve comprising high value leucoxene and zircon products.
“This very significant increase in total ore reserves at Keysbrook clearly demonstrates the enormous underlying value of this world-class deposit and formally confirms the potential for Keysbrook to be a long-life, low-cost producer of premium quality mineral sands products,” said MZI MD Trevor Matthews.
“Furthermore, we have still only scratched the surface, with almost half of all mineral resource at Keysbrook still outside the current ore reserve footprint, and the Keysbrook mineralisation itself still open along strike to the north, south and west.”
MZI was hoping to further extend the mine life of Keysbrook through converting additional mineral resource and through further exploration drilling.
The Keysbrook project achieved nameplate throughput capacity in December last year, with the mine tipped to deliver 96 000 t/y of leucoxene and zircon products.
The project shipped its first zircon product in December last year, and its first leucoxene product in March.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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