Ross Louthean, Mineweb.com
A mineral sands deposit that was seen as a potential world dominator in the late 1980s has now passed through the hands of one Australian junior company with specialty interests to another hopeful junior.
Austpac Resources NL (ASX: APG) announced today that it plans to sell the exploration licence in western Victoria containing the Wim 150 deposit to Astron Ltd (ASX: ATR) for $A5 million ($US4.6 M).
Rio Tinto had shocked the mineral sands world by discovering Wim 150 which was seen as potentially dominating global production of ilmenite, rutile and other heavy minerals.
The core area of Wim 150 had a reserve of 1 billion tonnes at over 3% total heavy minerals using a 2% HM cut off grade. This was part of a bigger resource of 4.1 Bt grading 2% HM. Within the core area reserves the contained minerals included 12.5 million tonnes ilmenite, 3.4 Mt rutile and anatase, 4.6 Mt leucoxene, 5.1 Mt zircon, 580,000t monazite and 170,000t xenotime.
However, after years of studies and research on the fine-grain deposits the recovery processes of that time were considered sub economic at best and Rio Tinto, then under CRA Ltd in Australia, dropped the area.
It was picked up by Austpac which was not only exploring for mineral sands but moving into technologies for low temperature roasting and other applications that also were relevant to the steelmaking sector.
Austpac farmed-out Wim 150 to another company that encountered operating problems elsewhere.
Managing director for Austpac, Mike Turbot, said the sale funds would be used to accelerate development of its iron recovery plant in the industrial port city of Newcastle in northern New South Wales.
He said subject to completion of the sale, Austpac has also granted Astron a non-exclusive licence to use the company's LTR (low temperature roasting) and CLR (continuous leach reactor) technologies in Australia, China and elsewhere.
Astron plans to use these technologies to beneficiate fine-grained minerals from the Murray Basin in south eastern Australia.
Austpac is commercialising its ERMS and EARS technologies in the titanium and steel businesses. The new capital will be used on the EARS section of the ERMS synthetic rutile demonstration plant and iron recovery plant.
"This project will commercially recycle waste from the steel industry -- mill scale and spent pickle liquor -- to produce high-grade iron briquettes for steel production and hydrochloric acid," Turbot said.
Astron is engaged in zirconium and related chemical manufacturing as well as mineral sands processing and trading in China.