PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands developer Sheffield Resources has reported a 68-million tonne, or 10% increase in the ore reserve at its Thunderbird project, in Western Australia.
The Thunderbird mineral sands project is now estimated to host a reserve of 748-million tonnes, at 11.2% heavy minerals.
The greater Dampier project is estimated to host a mineral resource of 3.36-billion tonnes, at 6.8% heavy minerals, with the Thunderbird resource accounting for 3.23-billion tonnes and the Night Train mineral resource for 130-million tonnes.
Sheffield MD Bruce McFadzean on Tuesday said that the company has made excellent progress with brownfields exploration at the Dampier project, increasing the Dampier mineral resource with the addition of a maiden Night Train inferred mineral resource, and a material increase in the Thunderbird reserve.
“It is tremendous to be growing our mineral resource and ore reserve inventory at a time when mature deposits globally are in depletion and showing evidence of declining grade and product quality.
“We have a number of exciting exploration targets and programmes planned for 2020 over our extensive and highly prospective exploration portfolio. We expect our ongoing exploration efforts to continue to deliver resource growth for Sheffield in the future.”