PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed explorer Sheffield Resources has doubled the mineral resource at its Thunderbird heavy mineral sands deposit, at its Dampier project, in Western Australia.
The junior reported on Wednesday that the deposit was now estimated to host 2.62-billion tonnes of ore, at 6.5% heavy minerals, including a high-grade component of 740-million tonnes, grading 12.1% heavy minerals.
The zircon resource within the deposit also increased by about 148%, to 14.3-million tonnes, while contained ilmenite increased by 97%, to 47.9-million tonnes.
“The Thunderbird deposit is one of the largest accumulations of zircon in the world. The contained zircon in the total resource stands at 14.3-million tonnes, more than twice that of the previous 2012 resource estimate,” said Sheffield MD Bruce McQuitty.
He added that zircon and ilmenite were expected to be the most important products by value and volume, respectively, to be sourced from the Thunderbird deposit.
McQuitty said that the mineralisation at Thunderbird remains open in all directions, adding that the company would target extensions of the deposit during its 2014 drilling campaign.