A new resource estimate for the Mount Philp hematite iron prospect in Northwestern Australia shifts more inferred resources into the indicated category but has failed to lift the shares of Cerro Resources (CJO-V, CJO-A).
Indicated resources — which make up 63% of the total resource of the Mount Philp deposit — now stand at 19 million tonnes grading 41% iron and 38% silica. Inferred resources add another 11.4 million tonnes of 34% iron and 48% silica.
The updated resource figures are based on 48 diamond and reverse-circulation holes drilled over a 4-km strike length.
The 100%-owned Mount Philp deposit is 54 km southeast of Mount Isa in Queensland and 8 km northwest of the company’s Kalman molybdenum-rhenium-copper-gold deposit.
Mt. Philp occurs as a single northeast-trending, iron-rich stratigraphic unit that extends over 4 km within the Proterozoic Corella formation that grades from hematitic quartzite through banded siliceous ironstone and siliceous ironstone into massive hematitic ironstone.
The ironstone is generally fine- to medium-grained with increasing grain size related to hematite content. Remobilization of hematite with coarse recrystallization is evident in some shears.
Preliminary metallurgical testing on samples from within the inferred resource suggests creating a 68% iron product using the floatation method to remove silica. Floatation sighter tests on samples of varying silica content indicated an iron-ore product could be achieved from material with high silica content, the company says.
Cerro Resources began exploring the Mount Isa mineral province in 2005 and focused on structurally controlled deposits within altered Corella formation metasediments. It discovered the Kalman molybdenum-rhenium deposit in October 2005 while deep drilling a known copper occurrence. It didn’t start pursuing the Mount Philp iron ore project with regional mapping and rock-chip geochemisty until 2010.
At presstime Cerro Resources’ shares traded at 12¢ apiece within a 52-week range of 9¢–37¢. The company has 208 million shares, fully diluted.
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