PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Potash West has doubled the indicated resource estimate at its Dinner Hill phosphate and potash project, in Western Australia, while grades increased by 4%.
Drilling carried out in 2014 and 2015 has now pushed the Dinner Hill indicated resource to 250-million tonnes, grading 2.9% phosphorus pentoxide.
Within this resource there was an indicated resource of 155-million tonnes, grading 4.1% potassium oxide and an inferred resource of 20-million tonnes at 2% potassium oxide. An additional mineral resource of 18-million tonnes, at 3.8% phosphorus pentoxide, also occurs marginal to the phosphate resource.
“These are very pleasing results, which have further highlighted the world-class size and prospectivity of our Dandaragan Trough project,” said Potash West MD Patric McManus.
He noted that the drill programme had several objectives, including to identify the extent of the mineralisation, to obtain samples to complete metallurgical and process development testwork, and to drill a sample area of the deposit to confirm the drill density that would be required to report a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource to a measured resource category.
“These were all achieved. Importantly, the mineral inventory for phosphate production has increased substantially, and there is still a significant area of the prospective Dinner Hill tenement to be explored.”
McManus noted that phosphate and potash mineralisation were also still open to the east and to the south, which offered considerable upside at Dinner Hill for increased project life or capacity increases.