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Australian Critical Minerals (ASX: ACM, “Australian Critical Minerals” or “the Company”) a mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and development of critical mineral projects in Western Australia, is pleased to announce the commencement of iron ore exploration on its Pilbara portfolio.
Highlights
- An initial mapping and sampling campaign focused on Iron Ore prospectivity has commenced on the Cooletha and Shaw Projects in the Pilbara, Western Australia
- Objective of the program is to develop drill targets for a follow up field campaign
- ACM’s Pilbara portfolio covers 494km2 and is highly prospective for Iron Ore
- Over 20km of prospective Channel Iron Deposits (CID), with historical sampling returning an average grade of 56% Fe across various CID ridges at the Cooletha Project
- Over 10km of Banded Iron Formations (BIF) and CID targets will be followed up at the Shaw Project
- Excellent infrastructure including rail and port that currently service established iron ore mines
- Located amongst Iron Ore Giants
- The Shaw Project sits directly south of Atlas Iron’s Miralga Creek Iron Ore Mine and directly east of the Abydos Iron Ore Complex. The Abydos host stratigraphy potentially extends into the Shaw tenement
- The Cooletha Project is located north of FMG’s Cloudbreak Mine and northwest of Hancock Prospecting’s Roy Hill Mine
Cooletha Fe Project
The Cooletha Project, covering over 400 km2 of ground in the Pilbara, is highly prospective for Iron Ore. The Project is located north of Fortescue Metals Group’s (ASX:FMG) Cloudbreak Mine and north west of Hancock Prospecting's Roy Hill Iron Ore Mine (Figure 1).
As sampling work progresses and drill targets are defined at Cooletha and Shaw it is anticipated that the currently known CID areas will be extended and further CIDs may be identified (Figure 2).
An advanced, high-resolution satellite-borne sensor mapping study has been completed and this will guide the current sampling program.
The Cooletha Project has excellent infrastructure with both FMG and Hancock Prospecting’s rail infrastructure transecting the tenements. Once ACM’s CIDs are defined, the Company expects they may be of significant interest to major mining companies given the ease of which exisiting road, rail and port infrastructure can be accessed from Cooletha and Shaw.
Pastoral stations in the Cooletha and Shaw areas provide an excellent base from which ACM will be able to support exploration teams to conduct exploration and drill programs.
Shaw Fe Project
The Shaw Project of almost 100km2 of ground is prospective for Iron Ore in Banded Iron Formation (BIF) and as CID’s (Fig 3). Historic sampling of the BIF at Shaw returned +50% Fe (previously reported in the Company Prospectus 29 June 2023). This BIF unit will be followed up with further sampling in the current program to further identify its size and grade potential. The CIDs in Shaw have not had historic work and provide targets that represent potential substantial upside.
The Shaw Project sits directly south of Atlas Iron’s Miralga Creek Iron Ore Mine and directly east of the Abydos Iron Ore Complex. The Abydos host stratigraphy potentially extends into the Shaw tenements. The proximity of the Shaw project to Miralga Creek offers the scope to discover a Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) resource which may be attractive to Miralga Creek where Atlas have mine plans to develop five open pits to extract 8 million tonnes of Iron Ore over four to five years. 1
The Shaw Project is close to existing infrastructure including rail and is only 100km SSE of Port Hedland. The Miralga Creek to Abydos road passes within 100m of the Shaw tenement boundary. The Miralga Creek mine site is only 6km from the tenement boundary. Miralga Creek is one of three nearby Atlas Iron locations which together reported 100Mt of iron ore production in 2022-2023.
Figure 1 – The location of the Cooletha and Shaw Projects in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
Figure 2 – The Cooletha Project, Channel Iron Ridge locations(Source Company Prospectus, Released 29 June 2023)
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Types of Iron Ore: Hematite vs. Magnetite
What is hematite ore?
Hematite ore, also called direct-shipping ore, has naturally high iron content suitable for steelmaking. Because of its high iron content, hematite ore must undergo only a simple crushing, screening and blending process before being shipped off for steel production. For that reason, hematite ore is important for many mining companies.
Hematite ore is found throughout the world, with major production hotspots being Australia, Brazil, China and India.
In Australia, hematite has been the primary type of iron ore mined since the early 1960s. Nearly all of Australia's iron ore exports are high-grade hematite ore, and the majority of its reserves are located in the Hamersley mountain range of Western Australia because the range sits on a banded iron formation.
BHP (ASX:BHP,LSE:BHP,NYSE:BHP) is Australia’s leading iron ore producer and has several mining and processing hubs in Western Australia. Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,LSE:RIO,NYSE:RIO) is also a major iron ore producer in the country, especially in the Pilbara region. One of its key iron producing operations is the Hope Downs iron ore complex, a 50/50 joint venture with Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting.
Brazil is another of the world’s main sources of hematite ore. The country's Carajás mine, operated by major miner Vale (NYSE:VALE), is the largest iron ore mine in existence. Vale consistently ranks among the world's five largest mining companies and is the world's biggest producer of iron ore pellets. Its primary iron ore assets are in the Iron Quadrangle region of Brazil's Minas Gerais state.
A great deal of hematite ore is also mined in China. Known reserves include the Tung-Yeh-Chen and Dongye hematite ore deposits.
What is magnetite ore?
Mishainik / Adobe Stock
The mineral magnetite is a highly magnetic mineral found in solid and crystal forms. Magnetite actually has higher iron content than hematite. However, while hematite ore generally contains large concentrations of hematite, magnetite ore tends to hold low concentrations of the mineral magnetite. As a result, this type of iron ore ore must be concentrated before it can be used to produce steel. Magnetite ore’s magnetic properties are helpful during this process.
Magnetite ore may require more treatment than hematite ore, but end products made from magnetite ore are typically of higher quality than those made from hematite ore. That’s because magnetite ore has fewer impurities than hematite ore; in this way, the elevated cost of processing it can be balanced out.
Magnetite ore is currently mined in Minnesota and Michigan in the US, as well as in taconite deposits in Eastern Canada. A major mining site in Michigan is the Marquette Range, which hosts four types of iron ore deposits, including both magnetite and hematite ore.
In Minnesota, magnetite ore is mined mainly in the Mesabi Range, one of the four ranges that make up the state's Iron Range. Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) is a major player in the magnetite ore industry and the largest iron ore pellet producer in North America. Its Hibbing Taconite joint venture in Minnesota’s Mesabi Range has an annual capacity of around 7 million metric tons of magnetite ore.
In Canada, many mining companies focus on exploration and development in the iron-rich Labrador Trough, which runs through parts of the provinces of Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
This is an updated version of an article first published by the Investing News Network in 2013.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
