Apollo Minerals (ASX: AON) is an iron ore exploration company advancing two wholly owned projects - the Mount Oscar Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and the Commonwealth Hill Project in South Australia.
At Mount Oscar, Apollo Minerals has a total exploration target of 500Mt of magnetite-bearing banded iron formation at 31-37% Fe.
Apollo Minerals intersects 112m at 33.9% iron at Mt Oscar, sees significant magnetite tonnages
Apollo Minerals' (ASX: AON) initial drilling of Unit A at its Mt Oscar Main Iron Ore Project has defined an intersection of 112 metres at 33.9% iron (Fe) from 66 metres, indicating potential for significant tonnages of magnetite and itabirite.
Inclusion of both styles of mineralisation has potential to increase the strike length from 6 kilometres to 11 kilometres.
Also, better than expected metallurgical test work results indicate that production of iron ore concentrates suitable for steel making is also feasible. Results show that magnetite from Unit A is capable of producing saleable product ie >60% Fe, <8% (aluminum oxide (Al2O3) + silicon dioxide SiO2).
Unit A is the southern-most iron formation identified to date at Mt Oscar in the Pilbara region of in Western Australia. Currently, Apollo has an exploration target of 300–500 million tonnes of magnetite at 30–37% Fe over a combined strike of 6 kilometres at its Mt Oscar Main iron ore project.
Davis Tube Recovery (DTR) intercepts include:
- 40 metres at 62.3% Fe, 0.8% Al2O3, 10.7% SiO2, 0.03% P and 0.09% S from OSRC006, and;
- 30 metres at 66.2% Fe, 0.2% Al2O3, 5.9% SiO2, 0.02% P and 0.02% S from OSRC006.
Flotation tests produced a concentrate grade of 64.5% Fe, 0.5% Al2O3, 7.0% SiO2 at P80 45µm from hole OSRC007 and there is potential to produce saleable concentrates at even coarser grinds.
Opportunities have been identified to further improve product qualities and mass yields via capture of iron oxides including haematite and goethite (itabirite).
The company is in talks with Chinese steel mills and traders suggest an opportunity to produce lower cost, saleable pre-concentrates.
Dominic Tisdell, Apollo Minerals executive general manager, said “these results clearly indicate Mt Oscar has the potential to produce desirable iron ore concentrates suitable for the steel making process.
"We are highly encouraged by these advances and look forward to pushing the development of Mt Oscar forward as quickly as possible.”
Apollo has two key projects in the Australian iron ore provinces of the Pilbara in Western Australia, and Gawler Craton in South Australia.
Importantly, the projects are well situated close to existing infrastructure including railways, ports and power and have the potential to produce significant quantities of seabourne iron ore.
Mount Oscar is in a region dotted with large iron projects, including the Sino Iron project (CITIC): 2 billion tonnes, the Cape Lambert project (MCC): 1.6 billion tonnes and Balmoral South (Australasian Resources ASX: ARH)): 1 billion tonnes.
Apollo is continuing to evaluate the drill data and metallurgy results from the initial Unit A drill program to enable the planning of an infill drill program which would be aimed at developing a resource to support a small scale, near-term mine development that has the potential to be scaled up to optimal size through the reinvestment of operating cash flows.
Apollo is also working on a study for the Project which aims to evaluate the development options available for the Project and highlight potential economic returns.
Given the unexpected and positive metallurgical results of Unit A which highlighted the potential for significant quantities of weakly or non-magnetic banded iron ore mineralisation (indicative of itabirite), Apollo is now planning to evaluate the potential for other large, weakly magnetic or nonmagnetic prospects on the property.
In particular, indications are that similar styles of mineralisation may exist at Unit B and Unit A North amongst others.
Recent work suggests a total of 11km of strike is prospective for both styles of iron ore mineralisation at Mt Oscar Main (refer Figure 3).
Furthermore, Apollo has completed modelling and analysis of its Mt Oscar East iron ore project located 7km east of Mt Oscar Main.
This work has highlighted the potential for large volumes of itabirite-style iron ore mineralisation in addition to the magnetite mineralization already identified.
The current magnetite exploration target for this property is 50–150Mt of magnetite at 30-37% Fe.
In support of its ambitious development plans, Apollo has recently appointed Dominic Tisdell and Derek Macauley, a consultant, to the respective positions of Executive General Manager and Technical Advisor to the Board.
Apollo is now planning to conduct a ground gravity survey on its Mt Oscar East property to attempt to identify significant quantities of near surface, directly shippable ore (DSO) similar to that delineated in the Roper Bar district of the Northern Territory.
China Armco Mining (AMEX:CNAM) recently took up a shareholding of 12.5 million shares for 19.9% in Apollo for A$4.3 million and off-take rights for 15% of the iron ore produced at market price.
CNAM is engaged in metals recycling and the distribution of metal ore, steel scrap, and non-ferrous metals within China. The CNAM investment would seem to have removed near term funding risk from AON.
Apollo has a market capitalisation of A$9 million. In a recent comparison within its immediate peer group represented by 16 local iron ore explorers with valuations as high as A$800 million, Apollo carried the lightest valuation.
