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Three Primary Targets Identified at Pituffik Titanium Project
FinnAust Mining plc, the AIM listed exploration company with projects in Greenland, Finland and Austria, has provided further detail on work completed during 2015 at the recently acquired 126 sq km Pituffik Titanium Project in Greenland.
This work focused on better defining areas likely to host economic mineralisation and was undertaken by Bluejay Mining Limited, in conjunction with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
Highlights
· Pituffik comprises three main target areas along an >80km coastline historically proven to contain large & high-grade accumulations of primary Ilmenite occurring as placer deposits in the following environments:
o Raised beaches; containing ilmenite accumulations over widths of more than 1km, of unknown depths, along more than 20km of coastline
o Active beaches; which refer to the area seaward of the frontal dunes, including the beach, tidal zones and surf zone – historically samples from this area have achieved 70% ilmenite by weight
o Drowned beaches; refers to the areas seaward of active beaches
· The primary constituent of the Pituffik ilmenite is the metal titanium;
o Ilmenite is the primary feedstock in the production of all titanium based derivatives which include titanium dioxide, used primarily as a bulking agent and white pigment for all paint products, has a wide range of uses in the military and defence sectors as well as aeronautical applications including space activities
o An emerging and potentially significant driver of titanium consumption will be 3D titanium printing, an application which has seen significant growth over the last five years and has significant commercial application
· Seafloor bathymetry and boomer seismic profiling has been conducted over the drowned beaches to map the depth of the water and to profile the sediments accumulated on the sea floor. The initial survey consisted of >300 line km of wide spaced array followed by an additional 38 line km’s of infill and sea floor sampling
o Full bathymetry report expected to be published by GEUS in Q1 2016
· Initial on site unprocessed results from the bathymetry and boomer profiling were used to identify targets for offshore sampling programme – 69 samples collected at the drowned beaches up to c.1km from shore prove that the mineralisation runs into the marine environment with full results anticipated in Q1 2016
· Sampling conducted at the active and raised beaches – 171 samples taken across 28km of shoreline with the intertidal, upper tidal and raised terraces targeted with results anticipated in Q1 2016
· Aerial photography completed over the majority of the licence length concentrating on the coast and frontal scarp
· GEUS commissioned to define the simplest and most appropriate metallurgical process that may be applicable to concentrate the Pituffik ilmenite into a saleable product in addition to preparing a pure ilmenite concentrate for distribution to potential customers in the next three months
· FinnAust is focused on finalising initial off-take agreements before the end of the year
FinnAust Managing Director Roderick McIllree said, “As demonstrated by the above, a large amount of high quality work has been undertaken to date on this project and FinnAust and its shareholders are the direct beneficiaries of this. This announcement demonstrates the news flow that can be expected over the coming months as the results from these various work programmes flow through.
“The potential of this very pure titanium occurrence is clear and attractive to us; the path to generating consistent cash flow is simple and well understood by industry with little to no metallurgical complexity or processing problems. It is significant that the mineralisation has been proven to continue into the drowned beach environment, which is potentially the most significant of the three target areas. However, we believe each of the targets to be globally significant in their own right.
“The Company is currently working closely with the Greenlandic regulators to finalise the approval of the Pituffik licence transfers to FinnAust and once done, we will apply for appropriate licence coverage of these newly discovered marine based sediments. Approval processes for this type of licence usually take 4-12 weeks.
“We expect that the results, which will start rolling through in Q1 2016, will re-confirm the independently determined potential for Pituffik to be in the top percentile of projects worldwide in terms of heavy mineral grade, putting us in a strong position to move the project forward. The 2016 work programmes will also be announced in the coming months. Add to this is our extremely tight shareholder structure, the presence of a highly supportive major shareholder in Western Areas, and extensive management experience in Greenland, which together ideally position the Company to deliver significant growth and value in 2016.”
