Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore major Fortescue Metals has added some 1.16-billion tonnes of resource to its Greater Solomon mineral resource, in Western Australia, following an exploration programme.
The Greater Solomon resource now stood at 2.66-billion tonnes, and included all development properties within a 50 km radius of the Solomon operating hub.
When the Greater Solomon mineral resource is added to the Solomon hub resource, which includes the Firetail and Kings Valley projects, the total mineral resource stood at 4.5-billion tonnes.
The miner told shareholders on Tuesday that it would undertake further drilling to convert selected portions of the inferred mineral resource to indicated status in the short- to medium term, and to evaluate the possibility of transporting the ore to the company’s existing ore processing facilities at the Solomon hub.
The miner has also identified several new Brockman iron deposit targets within the existing Solomon hub and plans to test these throughout 2015. If converted into a mineral resource, Fortescue would determine whether the ore was suitable to transport to existing ore processing facilities.