Image Resources is fast approaching ‘mission complete’ at its high-grade Boonanarring mineral sands project 80km north of Perth with the company expecting the ore reserves to be depleted by mid-year. The company has had a stellar run at the project, generating a tidy $50m bank balance while eliminating its debt ahead of schedule and paying out a maiden dividend to shareholders in the process. Image now has its eyes firmly trained on its next target, the Atlas mineral sands deposit near WA’s Wheatbelt town of Cervantes.
Ahead of that, Image seems to be laser focused on eking out the very last drop of ore at Boonanarring, which contains a remaining JORC compliant reserve of 1.2 million tonnes at 7 per cent total heavy minerals (THM) with 22 per cent zircon in the heavy mineral mix. Consultant Snowden Optiro updated the ore reserve estimate as at 31 December 2022, Entech Mining Consultants prepared and reported the update in accordance with JORC guidelines.
Underscoring how Image has evolved and sharpened its mining techniques at Boonanarring, pit designs and top of the ore surfaces were revised due to increasing revenue projections. There was some unplanned dilution which occurred due to mining of overburden, with large excavators that were not as selective in exposing the top of the ore surface as desired. Image said the pit design changes and unplanned dilution increased ore tonnage and lowered Total Heavy Mineral (THM) grade.
Site operations at Boonanarring reported a lowering of the operational cut-off-grade below 2 per cent THM as zirconium dioxide grades outperformed those predicted by resource modelling. The company said this had a minor impact because the bulk of the contained THM was within the high-grade mineralised strands. HM concentrate sales are based on assayed zirconium dioxide and titanium dioxide percentages within the heavy mineral concentrate produced.
Image Resources has 12 heavy mineral sands deposits with Boonanarring in the south the first to be mined with the remaining ore reserves there scheduled to be depleted by the middle of this year. The wet concentrator plant will then be relocated to the Atlas Project where a JORC ore reserve of 9.5 million tonnes at 8.1 per cent THM awaits. The third project from the original portfolio under feasibility study is Bidaminna. This is a potential standalone dredge project with current JORC resources of 102 million tonnes grading 2.2 per cent THM.
Open pits at Boonanarring are being progressively backfilled and restored in advance of the cessation of mining in the middle of the year.
In the first quarter of last year the company acquired a package of mineral sands tenements located in the historic Eneabba mineral sands mining district. This effectively tripled Image’s total mineral resources accessible by dry mining using excavators and trucks rather than wet pond dredging. In March 2022 the company acquired the 5.8 billion tonne McCalls mineral sands project which added a massive 84 million tonnes of THM. This increased Image’s total mineral resources accessible by dry mining by a factor of 20. McCalls is located just 15km north of current Boonanarring operations.
Image said the strategic acquisitions of the Eneabba and McCalls projects were funded from cash reserves and provide a greatly expanded and sufficiently prospective portfolio for long-term growth and sustainability. The company said its growth strategy is focused on the potential to transition from the current single operation with a single product, to multiple longer-term operations with mineral separation to multiple products, including the potential upgrading of ilmenite to synthetic rutile and expanded marketing opportunities globally.
The Bidaminna feasibility study is in progress and has been expanded to include studies into the viability of dry mining and processing operation at Yandanooka near Eneabba and for the development of hydraulic mining and processing at McCalls.
Image has seemingly ticked all the right boxes at Boonanarring since it commenced operations there in 2018. And with its mission to mine out Boonanarring nearing completion, the company now has its sights trained on its next target, the Altas deposit near WA’s coastal crayfishing town of Cervantes. Here, Image will no doubt be hoping to ink another chapter in its unfolding story of success in mineral sands mining operations.
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