Essex Minerals Inc. (TSX-V:ESX) told investors that it is “very pleased” with the results so far from its continuing due diligence program on the Lagersdrift vanadium project in South Africa’s Limpopo province.
The minerals exploration and development said it has collected a total of 62 rock and cut-channel samples. Of those, 55 samples of massive magnetite returned assays that ranged from 0.41% to 1.83% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), with a median value of 1.08%, and 12.2% to 20% titanium dioxide (TiO2), with a median value of 16.1%.
In addition, 41 of the 55 massive magnetite samples were collected from the Main magnetite layer (MML) along 6 kilometres (km) in total strike length, revealing 0.71% to 1.83% V2O5, with a median value of 1.32%, and 12.2% to 20% TiO2, with a median value of 15.4%.
“The results for vanadium pentoxide met our expectation while those for titanium dioxide exceeded them,” Essex president Rod Husband said in a statement.
“The main magnetite layer outcrops or is very near surface over a combined strike length of over 5,000 metres, with very shallow (approximately 10- to 15-degree) dips. Building tonnes with little or no strip ratio should be fast and relatively inexpensive.”
The company noted that historical exploration work completed by Anglovaal in the 1970s and 1980s on the current Lagersdrift licence and adjacent Blinkwater licence application identified four separate near-term potential exploration and mining targets with a total strike length of prospective targets of approximately 8.5 km.
Under an existing term sheet with the property vendor, it said can earn an initial 50% in the projects by spending $500,000 on exploration and other project-related expenditures. It can also acquire a further 10% from the vendor based on an independent valuation following the initial earn-in.
“We look forward to further evaluation of these results with a specific focus on potential economics and preparing next steps for the project, which may include a sizable bulk sample,” Husband added.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com