Owing to strong prices for mineral sands, Australian exploration company Broken Hill Prospecting has been actively promoting and seeking partners to assist in the development of the company’s Murray basin heavy mineral sands (HMS) portfolio.

The company has secured extensive tenements in the last few years within the Murray basin HMS region of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

To date, the company has defined a number of resources and identified numerous HMS targets that have been prioritised for drilling.

The company is currently in discussions with a number of international groups, from both China and India, that are seeking to secure long-term supplies of HMS from safe jurisdictions, such as Australia.

Broken Hill’s shareholders may benefit by working with such partners who are currently undergoing expansion of processing facilities for the production of titanium and zirconium, owing to increasing demand, says Broken Hill CEO Trangie Johnston in a letter to shareholders.

In recent weeks, the US Congress and US government have released a strategy aimed at securing ongoing supply of rare earths and other vital minerals for reasons of national security and defence, he says.

Historically, HMS have been a valuable source of rare-earth elements through the separation of monazite.

“Broken Hill’s previous metallurgical testwork within the Murray basin has demonstrated excellent extraction characteristics of monazite and the company is now assessing new processing and leaching technologies that could be suitably deployed,” notes Johnston.

Similarly, it should be noted that Australian mineral sands resources company Iluka Resources has said that it is investigating the extraction of rare earths from its Wimmera mineral sands project, in Victoria, as part of a current prefeasibility study.

“We are also in advanced due diligence on a number of rare earths projects in other locations, as we believe their strategic value – particularly to the US – creates significant opportunities.”

Meanwhile, Broken Hill is looking forward to seeing the resolution of numerous disputes that have occurred regarding development of the Thackaringa cobalt project, near Broken Hill, in New South Wales, Johnston states.

Last year, Broken Hill has issued a notice of dispute to cobalt deposit developer Cobalt Blue over the start of drilling activities at the Thackaringa cobalt project, in South Australia.

The dispute related to the drilling activities that have started outside the requisite approval process set out in a joint venture agreement, the company said last year.

Broken Hill currently holds a 30% beneficial interest in the project, as well as a 100% legal title.

Regardless of the outcome of the current expert determination review, the company will still retain a 2% royalty on any future cobalt production.

The company will still retain a title to the base and precious metals projects in the Thackaringa tenements and in others which the company owns outright within the region, as well as the company’s interest in industrial minerals covered by EL 8776 that overlaps the Thackaringa tenements.