The deposit, located 12km west of the Cairn Hill JV Mining Operation, located 55km south of Coober Pedy, has an inferred mineral resource of 569 million tons at 27.1% iron.

The program will optimise magnetite and hematite recoveries and define the processing and mining parameters to complete scoping and mine optimisation studies, which will begin before the end of the month.

Earlier, Davis Tube Recovery tests have produced magnetic concentrates of 65% iron at a coarse grind size of 200m with very low levels of impurities.

The coarse grind size means lower energy input costs in processing the concentrates for sale to end users.