Sheffield starts offtake talks for Thunderbird

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Sheffield Resources has started offtake discussions with global ilmenite and zircon customers over its Thunderbird mineral sands project, in Western Australia, following metallurgical testwork at the project.

The metallurgical testwork formed part of the project’s bankable feasibility study (BFS), which will be completed in early 2017.

Sheffield MD Bruce McFadzean has described the final results from the metallurgical testwork as "outstanding".

“In addition to confirming a robust process design, the testwork has demonstrated further improvements to the ilmenite product quality and improved recoveries for both zircon and ilmenite products,” he said on Wednesday.

McFadzean noted that the Thunderbird ilmenite, with its low chrome levels and high acid solubility, would be one of the highest-grade sulphate feedstocks available globally, and would likely displace lower quality ilmenites in the market.

“The high-grade ilmenite with its low alkali levels and pre-reduced state will likely produce high-quality chloride grade or sulphate grade slag, with a high purity iron coproduct,” he added.

Samples of the product have been dispatched to potential offtake partners for customer testing.

A 2015 updated prefeasibility study (PFS) for the Thunderbird project considered a throughput of 12-million tonnes a year, increasing to 18-million tonnes a year, to produce an average of 100 000 t/y of zircon and 382 000 t/y of high-grade sulphate ilmenite over the life of the mine.

The PFS estimated that the project will require a capital investment of A$271-million, delivering yearly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of A$135-million over a 40-year mine life.

However, the BFS will be smaller in scope, with throughput planned to start at 7.5-million tonnes a year and ramping up to 15-million tonnes a year from the fourth year of operations.