Diversified exploration company Australia Minerals & Mining Group (AMMG) is actively pursuing potential joint venture interests for its wholly owned 807-million-ton Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant inferred ilmenite resource at the Glenarty Creek mineral sands project, comprising the Rover Range and Miller’s Mill deposits, in Western Australia.

AMMG says it has received significant interest from some major international mineral sands consumers, particularly in China, since announcing the resource at the project.

The company noticed the demand when it participated in the Mines and Money conference and exhibition in June, which took place in Beijing, China, and when it hosted investor roadshows in Beijing and fellow Chinese cities Shenyang and Guangzhou.

The company’s heavy mineral ilmenite, which is a titanium mineral, is used as a feedstock for the titanium pigment industry and is favoured by the predominantly Chinese-based sulphate processing plants. The ilmenite mineral is beneficiated into synthetic rutile and slag to produce titanium dioxide pigment through a sulphate process. The pigment is then used for paints, plastics, paper and other pigments.

Ilmenite can also be blended to produce titanium dioxide, which is used to create titanium alloy metals and high-technology aerospace equipment.

Ilmenite is also used in the steel industry, owing to its ability to withstand extreme temperatures.

A Jorc-compliant inferred resource of 701-million tons at 3.8% heavy minerals, containing 2.6% ilmenite, with a potential strip ratio and thickness of up to 50 m, has been delineated at the Rover Range deposit, while a Jorc-compliant inferred resource of 106-million tons at 3.6% heavy minerals, containing 2.8% ilmenite, has been delineated at Miller’s Mill deposit. The secondary heavy mineral present at the deposits is zircon.

The Glenarty Creek project is situated on the Scott Coastal Plain, on the Vasse Shelf, which is part of the large Perth basin, which contains granulite-derived heavy mineral accumulations within Cainozoic sediments that are deposited in a fluvial environment.

The Perth basin lies in a well-estab- lished mineral sands region that con- tains several heavy minerals deposits stretching from Port Gregory, north of Geraldton, to Jangardup, near the south coast of Western Australia.

The project area comprises one 45- block exploration licence application and one seven-block granted exploration licence. It is in close proximity to existing infrastructure, is bisected by the Brockman highway and also has a direct route to the port as a result of diversified mining company BHP Billiton’s purpose-built heavy- haulage Sues road, running from the Brockman highway to the Vasse highway through the Schroeder state, in Western Australia.

AMMG MD Ric Dawson tells Mining Weekly that, since announcing the resource delineation in June, the project’s geology team has started conducting mineral analysis to validate potential product and revenue streams and is reviewing the opportunities available to AMMG to take the project into production.

“We are also preparing the land-access negotiations, environmental approvals and high-level marketing studies,” notes Dawson, adding that the company will also consider a drilling and sampling programme to potentially increase the resource.

Previous exploration has concluded that the predominant heavy mineral was interpreted as having been derived from the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Proterozoic Leeuwin complex, to the west of the Dunsborough Fault.

Dawson notes that the shallow water table beneath the deposits also makes the deposits amenable to traditional sand mine dredging techniques similar to those used at nearby deposits.

AMMG believes that this project could potentially create jobs in the mining, transport and processing of the resource and create much-needed local employment opportunities, he says.

Dawson adds that, as the world’s largest mineral sands producer, the Australian mineral sands industry cur- rently generates about A$1.2-billion in export income each year.

He further notes that Australia was the world’s largest ilmenite ore producer in 2011, producing about 1.3-million tons at a retail value of about $170/t.

“Ilmenite, which accounts for about 90% of the world’s consumption of tita- nium minerals, remains relatively secure, compared with other titanium feedstocks. The global demand for titanium pigment was at 5.3-million tons in 2010, with an expected yearly growth of between 3% and 4%,” Dawson explains.

AMMG sees the continuing inter- national growth in demand for titanium and zirconium minerals as an opportunity to develop new mineral sands resources in the south-west of Western Australia, where a significant amount of Australia’s heavy mineral sands are located.