Terra Metals poised to be Australia’s next critical minerals supplier

Terra Metals produces three high-grade concentrates with excellent recoveries at Dante Reefs project
Could be globally significant source of copper-gold-PGMS
Phase 2 metallurgical optimisation testwork and maiden resource estimate planned

Special Report: Terra Metals says metallurgical testwork has demonstrated the potential for its Dante Reefs copper, gold and platinum group metals project in WA to produce three high-grade concentrates.

According to Terra Metals (ASX:TM1), the project has the potential to be a globally significant source of a range of commercially attractive products including copper-gold-PGM concentrate, vanadium-magnetite concentrate and titanium-ilmenite concentrate.

The concentrates were produced with excellent recovery rates, using simple and low-cost processing techniques. They included:

A copper-gold-PGM sulphide grading 28% copper, 17g/t gold, 21.4g/t PGM with recoveries at 95.8% copper, 75.8% gold and 74.4% PGM
A vanadium-magnetite concentrate grading 1.81% V2O5 and recovery at 90.9%; and
A titanium-ilmenite concentrate grading 40% TiO2 with high-recovery of 65.6%.

Terra says the vanadium-magnetite concentrate, in particular, exceeds concentrate grades achieved by leading ASX vanadium resource projects, supporting the potential for competitive production of vanadium products, along with suitable feedstock to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide flake.

But that’s not all. The titanium-ilmenite concentrate also exceeds concentration grades achieved through magnetic separation by leading hard rock ilmenite concentrate producers.

Phase 2 optimisation testwork

Phase 2 metallurgical testwork is now planned to optimise processing parameters, concentrate grades and metal recoveries.

Given these initial promising results and the size of the Dante Reefs discovery defined thus far by exploration drilling, Dante Reefs has potential to be a globally significant and highly competitive source of a range of commercially attractive products.

“The metallurgical results demonstrate the economic potential of the project, highlighting the potential for the Dante Reefs to produce copper, gold, platinum, titanium and vanadium products,” TM1 managing director and CEO Thomas Line said.

“We have systematically approached the development and assessment of the Dante Reefs since the initial discovery was made last year.

“We will continue our systematic development of the deposit, including Phase 2 optimisation testwork and delineation of a maiden resource.

“Given the large amount of work undertaken last year, we believe we can achieve these next major milestones cost-effectively with modest further investment.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Terra Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.