Monday, June 1, 2009

Carpentaria Pushes Ahead For Iron Ore At Redan Burta

Carpentaria Exploration has shrugged off this week's fall in iron ore prices and is pushing ahead with drilling a NSW magnetite find.

The Brisbane based junior switched the focus at copper ground just south of Broken Hill to iron ore after chancing across some samples showing iron grades of 40%.

Subsequent surveys showing up to 50% grades at the Redan/Burta project has managing director Mr Nick Sheard hoping he can establish the first substantial magnetite resource east of Whyalla.

Mr Sheard said there were reasonable visual expectations that the ore would need to be ground to a thickness of about 100 microns, which sounds small, but is in fact fairly big for magnetite particles and could limit energy costs.

It’s very early days yet for Carpentaria, which has $3.7 million in the bank and a market value of $4 million, but more will be known when three drill holes are sunk in the next four to six weeks.

Magnetite ore processing has massive energy requirements compared with the direct-to-ship hematite ore mined by Rio Tinto and BHP, due to the farmer’s need to be finely ground.

Source: Steel Guru

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