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CARPENTARIA Exploration Limited (ASX: CAP) has resumed management rights of New South Wales’ biggest magnetite iron ore project.
Hawsons Iron Project in Broken Hill is the company’s flagship and is being undertaken with joint venture partner Pure Metals, which CAP has been working under for the past 12 months.
It has also been announced that Pure Metals has secured a 40 per cent interest in the project comparative to CAP’s 60 per cent interest.
Pure Metals stake was earned by reaching its expenditure commitment of $5 million in the past 12 months and paying $3.8 million in cash.
CAP’s managing director Quentin Hill (pictured right) says regaining management of the project, which is 60km southwest of Broken Hill, is momentous in cementing the company’s place as a premium iron producer.
“We believe the project is the cornerstone of a long lasting, low cost premium iron business with a significant upside for Carpentaria shareholders,” Hill says.
“The successful earn-in by Pure Metals has put the joint venture on a very stable footing and I look forward to continuing the project with Pure Metals into the future.”
Development work will continue with the existing CAP leadership team who will focus on increasing infrastructure certainty, product market development and project approvals.
This will have to take into special account the terrain. According to a statement released by CAP today, Hawsons’ soft rock differs from traditional hard rock magnetite and necessitates a vastly different approach to typical magnetite mining and processing challenges.
Pure Metals has made significant progress with the project in the past year including the establishment of a concentrate production case, confirmation of a viable project water source and progress in the environmental impact statement and submission of a mining lease application.
A bankable feasibility study is currently being conducted by Pure Metals and CAP based on production of an initial 10 million tonne per annum premium, low cost iron concentrate product.
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