Magnetite Mines has hired Foraco to commence a metallurgical bulk drilling program at the Razorback iron ore project in South Australia.
The program will collect bulk samples as part of Magnetite’s metallurgical test program designed by Hatch to process flowsheet design and optimisation of Razorback.
According to Magnetite, the drill program has been designed to test mineralisation contained in mining pit shells which represents processing feed from the first five years of operation.
Drilling at the Razorback iron ore project represents an important next step towards realising the full potential of the processing flow sheet.
The metallurgical drilling will target Iron Peak’s deposit using wide diameter diamond core holes.
“The drilling has been designed to firstly test the metallurgical properties of the mineralisation spatially, and secondly, to improve resource geological understanding at the Iron Peak deposit,” Magnetite mines technical director Mark Eames said.
“The Iron Peak deposit is a higher-grade, albeit lower-tonnage extension of the Razorback deposit and is currently included in the mineral resource estimate.
“However, further data density at this higher- grade deposit is required to fully realise its potential, with metallurgical and associated infill drilling helping to delineate this eastern extent of the deposit better.”
Foraco is a drilling services company that is based in France and is the third largest mineral driller globally in terms of fleet size.
Magnetite has flagged further drilling programs will be conducted at Iron Peak, including infill and deposit extension drilling, geotechnical drilling, groundwater exploration and dewatering, and exploration drilling.
“In keeping with our stated strategy of best-in-class partners, Foraco are a top-tier drilling contractor and bring with them excellent experience and safety record,” Eames said.
“We look forward to the drilling results towards de-risking the processing flow sheet and design.”
The Razorback project has 4.2 billion tonnes of inferred to indicated iron ore resources and contains three main ore bodies including the Razorback Ridge, Iron Peak and Ironback Hill deposits.