JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim- and FSE-listed Bluejay Mining has concluded the public preconsultation phase of the permitting process for its Pituffik titanium project, in Greenland, and will now move on to the public consultation phase of the final draft environmental-impact assessment (EIA) and social-impact assessment (SIA) documents.

The public preconsultation phase, which is a requirement of Greenland for granting exploitation licences, was aimed at creating a collaborative dialogue for stakeholders prior to the completion of the EIA and SIA for final assessment. The company stated on Tuesday that points raised during the preconsultation phase would be incorporated into the final form documents.

“The development of Pituffik has a limited environmental footprint due to the small intended infrastructure, no tailings and no chemical use. This will assist greatly during the assessment of Pituffik as we move through the permitting process towards ultimate development,” CEO Roderick McIllree commented in a statement.

Bluejay’s focus for 2017 at Pituffik includes determining the volume characteristics of Pituffik, delivering a bulk sample to potential offtake partners, completing the feasibility study and lodging an application for an exploitation licence.

Pituffik, which Bluejay conditionally acquired in December 2015 and assumed 100% ownership of in March this year, has demonstrated the potential to be in the top percentile of projects worldwide in terms of heavy mineral grade.

SRK Exploration Services has prepared a mineral resource estimate for Pituffik, estimating an inferred resource of 23.6-million tonnes at 8.8% ilmenite for the total area tested. This includes a high-grade zone, equal to 7.9-million tonnes at 14.2% ilmenite at Moriusaq, which is the focus of the feasibility study and production studies that are currently under way.

Bluejay also owns a portfolio of copper, zinc and nickel projects in Finland.