logo-loader

Titanium Sands continues to progress acquisition of high-grade tenure at Mannar Island

Published: 12:37 20 Dec 2019 AEDT

Titanium Sands Ltd - Titanium Sands continues to progress acquisition of high-grade tenure at Mannar Island
The company has been approached by a number of potential offtake partners

Titanium Sands Ltd (ASX:TSL) is continuing to advance the proposed acquisition of a group of companies that hold a substantive 38 square kilometre tenure package on Mannar Island, Sri Lanka.

The tenure package holds an inferred mineral resource of 32 million tonnes at 7.45% HMS (heavy mineral sands) and complements TSL’s existing assets at Mannar Island.

The Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting seeking various shareholder approvals for TSL to proceed with the proposed acquisition is expected to be sent to ASIC and ASX for review this week and will be despatched to shareholders once approved.

At this stage, the EGM is anticipated to be no later than February 2020.

Mannar Island project scoping study

TSL is now well advanced in the preparation and completion of a scoping study of the Mannar Island project.

First pass mining and process engineering studies are being undertaken by third-party industry experts and is expected to be available for the board to review in January 2020.

Drilling update

A drilling program has been completed on time and on budget and samples have been prepared to be sent to the laboratory in South Africa.

A total of 473 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes were completed for 5,632 metres of drilling.

Laboratory analyses from the RC drilling will enable resource modelling to be completed in the first quarter of 2020 of the unconsolidated sands that underly the existing shallow mineral resources already reported for the Mannar Island project.

Offtake discussions

TSL has been approached by a number of potential offtake partners purely on an introductory basis discussing the TSL resource.

Discussions to date have included parties from China, Japan, India and UAE.

Market potential

Mineral product test work for the Mannar Island heavy mineral sands indicates that it is most likely to find a market for its ilmenite minerals as a quality feedstock for titanium dioxide pigment production with the potential for smaller volume specialist rutile, zircon and garnet products.

Market indications suggest a base case pricing for premium sulphate ilmenite feedstock product of between USD$180-220 per tonne ($240 high grade) and rutile at around USD$1,118 per tonne.

Potential to grow to a medium/large company

TSL managing director Dr James Searle said: “The company is poised to achieve each of the above outlined milestones by the first quarter of 2020.

“This has the potential to move TSL from a small / medium asset company to a medium / large asset company as the resource is scaled up at depth (based on visual indications).

“It is an exciting time for the mineral sands industry with demand increasing via initial offtake discussions.

“The Board are looking forward to continuing to build on the excellent results achieved in 2019.”

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

5 hours, 28 minutes ago