Cadence Minerals plc said that geotechnical drilling would soon start to support mine planning work as part of the current feasibility study for the magnetite Lake Giles iron project in Yilgarn, Western Australia.
The company holds 1% of the issued equity interest in Australian explorer and operator Macarthur Minerals.
Mobilisation of the crew and equipment will begin shortly with drilling due to start during July for six to eight weeks.
The programme will include eight diamond core holes for a total depth of 1560m, each with varying depths of between 175 and 230m.
The drilling would provide information on the footwall and the hanging wall of the main pits for the first phase of magnetite mining operations at Moonshine.
DSO
Macarthur has also entered into a term sheet with Pacific National to transport by rail up to 400,000 tonnes per annum of iron ore between Kalgoorlie and Esperance. The deal will support a potential route for direct shipment ore (DSO) export.
The company plans to start mining, production and export DSO product at the earliest available opportunity. Suitable rolling stock is anticipated to be available from Q1 2022.
The news follows Macarthur’s application for a Miscellaneous Licence covering 74 hectares next to the Lake Giles iron project.
The tenure will support Macarthur’s non-process infrastructure for DSO export, initially targeting mining of the Snark and Drabble Downs deposits at Lake Giles.
Macarthur Minerals focuses on iron ore, nickel, lithium and gold in Western Australia, and lithium in Nevada, USA.