Image Resources NL (ASX:IMA) has delivered a 60% increase in ore tonnes in the ‘proved’ category of ore reserves for its Boonanarring Mineral Sands Project located in the North Perth Basin.
The company had completed grade control drilling in March 2017 to increase the confidence level of the Boonanarring mineral resource and ore reserve.
The total tonnes of proved ore reserves have now increased by 60% from 5.8 million to 9.3 million tonnes, albeit at a lower heavy mineral (HM) grade, but importantly at a higher concentration of zircon.
The significance of the updated ore reserve is that proved ore reserve now represents nearly half (47%) of the total ore reserves at Boonanarring.
Last month, Image received commitments from new and existing shareholders to subscribe for a placement of shares at $0.09 each, to raise circa $3 million.
Importantly, these funds will be used for project capital financing requirements for the development of the Boonanarring project scheduled for later this year.
READ: Image Resources NL expands mineral sands resource at Boonanarring
The price of zircon recently increased to 25% higher than the benchmark projected zircon price used in Image’s bankable feasibility study (BFS) for the first year of production (2018).
If overall average life-of-mine commodity prices increase by just 10% above the projected prices used in the BFS, the NPV of the project will increase by nearly $60 million to over $190 million.