Red Hawk Mining (ASX: RHK) has unveiled a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) for the Eagle deposit at the 100%- owned Blacksmith Iron Ore Project in Western Australia.
The new estimated of 71.1Mt at 57.4% Fe includes over 99% of the MRE in the Indicated category.
The resource estimate comprises two significant components:
- A resource targeted to generate a similar product reported as part of the Pre-Feasibility Study; including canga, mineralised Dales Gorge Member and other detrital materials totalling 25.9Mt at 59.6% Fe
- A Channel Iron Deposit (CID) resource of 45.2Mt at 56.2% Fe
The addition of the Eagle resource increases the total Blacksmith Mineral Resource Estimate to 243Mt at 59.3% Fe. Importantly, 27% of the MRE is in the Measured category, 69% in the Indicated category and less than 4% in the Inferred category.
“The addition of the updated Eagle deposit resource to the total Blacksmith MRE continues the work Red Hawk has been advancing over the past year to develop a higher-grade DSO iron ore project,” Managing Director, Steven Michael, said.
“Our Pre-Feasibility Study released in May this year incorporated four re-interpreted Blacksmith deposits – Delta, Paragon, Champion and Blackjack. With the addition of the Eagle deposit, the Blacksmith total MRE increases to over 240Mt, which will form the basis of the Definitive Feasibility Study due to commence in the current quarter.”
Next steps
Red Hawk will schedule and complete the following activities to improve the confidence in the Eagle Mineral Resource Estimate and support ongoing mine studies:
- Development of conceptual mine plans to define drilling targets.
- Infill drilling to a nominal 50m x 50m grid to improve the confidence in the remaining Inferred and Indicated Mineral Resource. To reduce the cost of drilling, the infill drilling will be confined to the area selected for mining.
- All holes from future drilling programs will be downhole geophysically logged for:
- Gamma
- Magnetic susceptibility
- Deviation
- 3-arm calliper
- Dual density
- Borehole Magnetic Resonance (for dry bulk density)
- Sampling and testwork for waste characterisation.
- Geotechnical drilling and testwork to support pit designs.
- Development of the Eagle deposit will be sequenced into the proposed mining schedule for the Blacksmith lease and will be incorporated in the Definitive Feasibility Study, due to commence in the current quarter.
