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Burley Minerals applies for exploration licences in globally renowned iron ore province

Last updated: 12:53 23 Sep 2021 AEST, First published: 12:13 23 Sep 2021 AEST

Burley Minerals Ltd - Burley Minerals applies for exploration licences in globally renowned iron ore province

Burley Minerals Ltd (ASX:BUR) has tendered its bid for two exploration licences in Western Australia’s famed Hamersley iron ore province.

If granted, the licences will see the multi-element explorer prospect for the steelmaking component across a series of under-explored mineralised deposits and iron formations.

Neither the Broad Flat Well and Hardey West exploration licences have attracted competing applications, so Burley is going through the usual motions to get its bid approved.

The green light would see the ASX-lister expand its exploration footprint into Hamersley, a world-class iron ore district that’s seen mining titans like Rio Tinto PLC (LSE:RIO), Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) Limited and BHP Group PLC (LSE:BHP) establish major operations.

Licences complement flagship project

Burley Minerals managing director Gary Powell said: “The new exploration license applications in the world’s premier iron ore province demonstrates the company’s strategy.

“[This involves] developing current resources and bringing in new value-adding projects at various stages of exploration and development, with the ultimate aim of compiling a portfolio of projects with demonstrable potential to add to the current resource base.

“These Hamersley exploration applications complement our lead Yerecoin iron and nickel-copper-platinum group element (PGE) project, where Burley is actively exploring and conducting a preliminary feasibility study.”

If it does secure the two licences, Burley hopes to get to the field and complete mapping and drilling activities.

As it waits for more news, the ASX-lister will review any and all historical data from the territories.

Broad Flat Well

The Broad Well Flat licence sits 110 kilometres southeast of Karratha along the Hamersley Basin’s northern margin.

The application covers around 223 square kilometres of prospective ground that’s dominated mafic to intermediate volcanics and sediments.

Interestingly, this kind of geology sits within the same formations that occur within Fortescue’s property.

Broad Well bears the remnants of an extended network of Channel Iron Deposits (CIDs), pockets of iron ore mineralisation that have seen work as early back as the 1970s.

More recently, explorers have collected rock chip samples and drilled more than 2,000 metres across the territory.

Between 2006 and 2008, a sampling campaign across the CID mineralisation returned as much as 61.5% iron.

Robe River Mining Co and Fortescue have even given the property a once-over, although much of their exploration involved desktop studies and surveying work.

If its application is successful, Burley’s exploration mission could focus on a largely untested section of a paleochannel, which it believes is worthy of drill testing.

Hardey West

Further south at Hardey West, a 470-hectare licence would see Burley prospect for iron ore some 70 kilometres from Paraburdoo.

The territory’s geology is dominated by mafic volcanics and volcanoclastic sediments tied to the Bunjina and Jerrinah formations, but it also includes Brockman Iron Formation stratigraphy.

It’s this formation that hosts the major iron ore deposits in WA’s Pilbara region.

Structurally speaking, the tenement application includes a portion of the northern limb of the west-plunging Hardey Syncline.

Significant iron ore resources are already being explored in this area, including BHP’s Rocklea Project and API’s Hardey Project.

Hardey West’s application area sits along the northern limit of the syncline, overlying prospective stratigraphy for bedded iron deposits (BID) within the Brockman formation.

There’s also some base metal prospectivity, but more work needs to be done to deepen understanding of the mineralisation.

Prospecting beyond Hamersley district

Burley is relatively new to the ASX, having only joined the local share market in July this year.

Its flagship project is the Yerecoin asset, situated 120 kilometres from Perth in WA.

Here, Burley has established a 246.7-million-tonne magnetite resource and it’s capable of producing a premium-quality concentrate at a more-than-68% iron grade.

The ASX-lister is on its way to completing a pre-feasibility study for Yerecoin, which will consider how it can export iron concentrate that’s suitable for sinter — the primary feed material for making iron and steel in a blast furnace.

Aside from the iron prospectivity, Burley is looking into the project’s base metal potential.

Nickel-copper sulphides have already been discovered amid Yerecoin’s ultramafic rocks, so there is scope for base metal prospectivity.

The asset’s geology bears similarities to Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX:CHN, OTCQB:CGMLF)’s nearby Julimar-Gonneville, firming up confidence in its nickel-copper-platinum group element potential.

Iron ore bounces back

News that Burley is looking at more iron ore exploration opportunities comes as the steelmaking commodity sprang from a 14-month low on Thursday.

CommSec reported a 14.4% surge in iron ore pricing as the resource lifted back above US$100 a tonne this morning.

The price of iron ore halved in recent weeks, dropping 60% from a record of more than $US230 a tonne in May, although today's increase helped pare back recent falls.

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