London-listed exploration and development company Savannah Resources has started a second scout drilling programme at its 180 km2 Jangamo heavy mineral sands (HMS) project, in Inhambane, Mozambique, and plans to start its heliborne magnetic survey of the licence area this month, Savannah Resources CEO David Archer tells Mining Weekly.

“The second scout drilling programme results, which follow the very encouraging drill results from the first drilling programme conducted in November last year, should be significantly defining in terms of allowing Savannah Resources to frame an attractive Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource in the final quarter of this year,” says Archer.

The drilling programme will analyse the composition and grade of the heavy minerals, as well as define the grade and the extent of the heavy minerals deposit. Savannah Resources expects to receive the final programme results by the end of September.

According to an April report by Mining Weekly, metallurgical testwork at the project has confirmed the project’s potential to host a “major” heavy minerals system, outlining high-grade zones of heavy minerals with total heavy minerals (THMs) of up to 5%, including ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene and zircon.

The Jangamo HMS project is located adjacent to mining major Rio Tinto’s Mutamba HMS deposit. The Mutamba deposit, combined with Rio’s Mutamago deposit, has a declared exploration target of between 7-billion and 12-billion tonnes at 3% to 4.5% THMs, notes Archer.

He highlights that exploration work conducted at the Jangamo project to date indicates that the geology and geomorphology of Jangamo are similar to those of Rio’s adjacent Mutamba deposit.

New Developments
Archer tells Mining Weekly that Savannah Resources’ heliborne magnetic survey follows the completion of the magnetic ground survey in April, which confirmed the feasibility of detecting the geophysical nature of the HMS deposits using an airborne platform. He further highlights that this form of survey will rapidly advance and lower the costs of the operation.

“It will enable Savannah Resources to deter-mine the geographical extent of the heavy mineralisation, as well as aid the company in guiding the drilling programme,” Archer comments, highlighting that the company’s current key objective is to further define the grades and extent of mineralisation.

Savannah Resources also aims to start the scoping study for the project in the last quarter of this year to analyse the commercial viability of the mine development and to determine the various available commercial options, explains Archer, emphasising the company’s excitement about the new developments.

The scoping study will be undertaken by global heavy minerals consultant TZ Minerals International. Savannah Resources expects to receive results by the first quarter of 2015.

Heavy Minerals Demand
Emphasising Mozambique’s attractiveness, Archer highlights the country as one of the richest countries in the world when it comes to heavy minerals production, as it is the fourth-largest producer of titanium dioxide minerals, and the fifth-largest zircon producer.

Heavy minerals ilmenite and rutile are used in the manufacture of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and titanium metal. TiO₂ is a very white, opaque compound used in manufactured products such as paint, plastic and paper.

Titanium feedstock production is a $2-billion-a-year industry, while the TiO_{2 pigment supply chain has yearly revenues of more than $10-billion and, in turn, supplies products to other industries, notes Archer.}

He adds that the supply of zircon sand to end-user markets is worth about $1.2-billion a year. While zircon sand is supplied to a wide range of consuming industries, the ceramics sector is the largest consuming end-use market.

“As the global demand for TiO₂ and zircon is expected to outstrip levels of supply in 2014, this demand provides Savannah with favour- able market dynamics for growth,” concludes Archer.