Positive Findings from Newmont Ti Benchmarking Study

West Cobar Metals Limited (ASX:WC1) (“West Cobar”, “the Company”) is pleased to provide an update on activities at its Salazar critical minerals project in Western Australia.

Highlights

• Titanium industry expert TZMI completes titanium benchmarking study on the Salazar Critical Minerals Project
• Study identifies Newmont as a standout from its peers in terms of Ti and TREO in-situ grade
• Benchmarking study is highly encouraging and supports validating flowsheet for production of titanium minerals from Salazar

Following successful characterisation testwork of Ti mineralisation at the Newmont Deposit area¹, West Cobar Metals engaged international titanium expert TZ Minerals International Pty Ltd (TZMI) to complete a benchmarking study of the Newmont resource.

TZMI is a global, independent consulting and publishing company which specialises in all aspects of the mineral sands, titanium dioxide and coatings industries².

The Newmont resource3 and characterisation data was used by TZMI to benchmark the Salazar project deposit against several existing operations and potential new projects under development using publicly available information and TZMI estimates. The outcomes of the benchmarking are shown in Figure 1.

The benchmarking study shows that the Ti contained within the Newmont deposit has promising potential for economic extraction and that the Newmont resource is positioned favourably amongst peer resources in respect of both Ti and rare earth element content.

Figure 1 : Salazar Project (Newmont deposit) benchmarking

The relative positioning of the Newmont Inferred Ti and rare earth element resource is very positive for West Cobar, with relatively high insitu TiO2 grades and TREO grades compared to its peers. The Ti levels of the resource (on a whole rock basis) compare very favourably to both developing and operating projects.

TZMI concluded that “In terms of final ilmenite product quality, the composition of the magnetic fraction (comprising predominantly ilmenite) shows some promise with TiO₂ levels as high as 48.5%. This suggests the ilmenite is likely present as primary ilmenite … the CaO, MgO, V₂O₅, Cr₂O₃ in the magnetic fraction all seem relatively low which is positive and likely to be within the accepted levels for ilmenite used in sulfate pigment production.”

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