Bluejay Mining Plc (LON:JAY) has revealed an upgrade to the resources at the Dundas ilmenite project, in Greenland.
The project’s total mineral resource increases by 15% to 117mln tonnes, at 6.1% ilmenite in-situ.
It also detailed a maiden exploration target of between 300 and 530 million tonnes in an offshore area, though the company noted that the potential size and quality of the target is “conceptual in nature” and so is not included in the minerals resource estimate.
READ: Bluejay Mining to continues work with Rio Tinto at Dundas
"The resource base at Dundas has always been significant, and this latest increase of 15% in indicated onshore resources to both the east and west of the Iterlak delta resource demonstrates that there is still a lot yet to be realised,” said Roderick McIllree, Bluejay chief executive.
He added: “The company intends to continue with additional resource progression over the next 12 to 24 months. Significant upside is also represented by the publication of the maiden offshore exploration target prepared by RSC.
“In conjunction with this, today's announced onshore resource upgrade represents another meaningful step forward in both the financial and commercial evaluation of the project with the successful identification of additional saleable material at Dundas.”
McIllree also highlighted that there are inherent advantages at Dundas - including a homogenous and consistent material, a high-grade resource, the coarse-grained and chemical nature of the ilmenite – which all potentially have economic benefits.
Permitting efforts continue and the company is advancing an optimized pre-feasibility study (PFS), and McIllree noted that he expects to update shareholders on both matters shortly.
Mine operations planning is being undertaken, and the company has also been working with a world-leading dredging company for a study on the offshore deposit area.
“Early indications thus far support a conceptual low-cost operation. Furthermore, environmental baseline studies for the marine deposit have been ongoing and will continue in 2019,” the Bluejay boss noted.
“These studies will provide a very strong base for assessing the environmental impact of an offshore mining operation.”
McIllree added: “The offshore exploration target provides upside for the current development of the onshore-focused mining and processing scenario which, following the intended upgrading of the exploration target to mineral resource, will be assessed in the PFS for Dundas.
“These are exciting times and the company looks forward to updating shareholders regarding all other activities in due course."