Highlights

  • Exploration drilling commences to expand Keysbrook Project
  • Keysbrook-style mineralisation identified to the west of the existing 78.9Mt Keysbrook Resource
  • Opportunity to materially extend the life of the Keysbrook Project

Commenting on the potential to materially extend the life of the Keysbrook Project, MZI Managing Director Trevor Matthews said: "We are very excited about the potential for mineralisation west of the Keysbrook Project, which exhibits mineralisation analogous to that within the existing Mineral Resource. While still too early to tell given exploration drilling has only commenced, the potential scale of the identified target mineralisation could significantly enhance the mine life and further improve the strong fundamental metrics of the project".

Drilling is being undertaken by locally-based contractor Arrinooka Drilling, reinforcing the company’s commitment to providing opportunities within the local community. The exploration drilling program is combined with a grade control drilling program. This combined program comprises 864 holes and has an expected duration of 8 weeks. Results from the exploration drilling program should be available in the June quarter 2015.

Keysbrook is a zircon and leucoxene rich mineral sands project located 70 kilometres south of Perth in Western Australia. Leucoxene is an intermediate to high grade form of naturally occurring titanium dioxide.

Mineral sands products have a range of consumer, lifestyle and industrial applications. Titanium dioxide is utilised in the production of pigment used in paints, plastics, papers, titanium metal and welding electrodes. Zirconium based products are used in ceramics for tiles, sanitary ware and table ware and zirconia metal applications.

Exploration Licence

Keysbrook West is located on Exploration Licences’ E70/2407 and E70/4628. E70/4628 was granted on 3 November 2014 following application by the Company.

MZI identified that sand dune material analogous to the resource at the Keysbrook Project extended to the west into the vacant ground.

Exploration Target

MZI has completed a series of auger holes to a depth of one metre, stepping west from the current Keysbrook Project Resource boundary. Figure 1 displays the location of this work. MZI was encouraged by the results of this work, which identified clear extensions to the Keysbrook mineralisation with the majority of auger holes ending in mineralisation.

A single composite assay was generated from this work, which returned an assay value of 1.6%THM. This grade is indicative only, with previous drill results from the Keysbrook Mineral Resource indicating grade increases with depth.

Historical data revealed reconnaissance drilling across the recently granted E70/4628. Figure 1 displays the significant drill intercepts interpreted to be within Keysbrook-style dune mineralisation. The three most significant intercepts are:

  • 8m@3.1% THM from 1 metre in HD510 (396300E 6406000N)
  • 7m@2.4% THM from 1 metre in HD511 (396380E 6406000N)
  • 6m@2.3% THM from 0 metres in HD502 (395580E 6406000N)

A full list of the intercepts is contained in Appendix C with the supporting Table 1 in Appendix B. Reconnaissance field traverses on E70/4628 by the MZI team confirmed the presence of heavy mineral near surface in panned concentrates.

Conceptual Target

Desktop analysis of multiple scenarios has resulted in compilation of a range of potential tonnages and THM grade based on the use of different parameters with regards to the extent and thickness of mineralisation outlined in Figure 1. The area of assessment is from the western margin of Keysbrook West to the western extent of the current Keysbrook Project resource, comprising an area of 33km2.

The scenarios are based on the following parameters:

  • Mineralised aircore drilling intercepts based on 1m@1%THM as a minimum cut-off
  • Presence of sand dune material interpreted from orthophotography and topographic contours
  • Presence of a mineralised basal sand dune unit beneath interpreted sand dune material based on auger drilling intercepts with a thickness range of 0 to 3 metres dependant on location and scenario

Of these three parameters, the latter varies between the different scenarios due to the lack of available data, with the other two parameters remaining constant.