Iron ore explorer Royal Resources has upgraded the resource estimate for its Razorback Premium Iron Project in South Australia, being developed in conjunction with a major Chinese group.
“This resource update represents an increase of 52 per cent over the resource announced in October, 2012,” the company said in a statement to the stock exchange this morning.
The upgrade followed reclassification of “internal waste” in previous models to now be considered “resource” and previously modelled geological units being optimised, improving the magnetite grade overall.
“These changes in the model have the potential of significantly reducing the overall strip ratio of the RPIP and so reduce mining costs,” the company statement said.
Royal Resources recently sold one of its prospects to cash up and focus on the Razorback Project in South Australia.
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The company’s share price has floundered at 3 cents, well down on its earlier peaks in the mid-20 cents rage, despite recent presentations on the company’s prospects to brokers in Sydney and Adelaide.
Royal’s managing director Marcus Flis has remained confident of the prospect.
“Forgetting the short-term slump in current commodity prices, South Australia has a huge range of mineral resources projects ready to come on stream once infrastructure and funding issues are finalised,” he told InDaily late last year.
“..it’s not all doom and gloom out there, and yes, it’s not a slam dunk, but with the support of the Government at least some of those projects will eventuate; not all will fail.”
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Since that time, Royal has been in deep discussions with China’s Tianjin Mining Exchange.
“On 11 January, 2013 Royal announced a tie up with the Tianjin Mining Exchange (TMEx),” the company said earlier this year.
“The TMEx is a Chinese Government sanctioned project clearing house that undertakes due diligence on mining projects and “pre-clears” them for Chinese investment.
“The TMEx mining platform was co-founded by the Ministry of Land and Resource of China, the Tianjin Municipal Government, one of the fastest growing cities in China, and the China Mining Association.
“Its genesis was in the desire to create a nexus between Chinese investors and foreign resources projects.
“Importantly, it has been awarded a rare licence to by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange so outbound investments can be conducted via TMEx as opposed to the traditional process that seeks approval on a case by case basis.
“The Razorback Project’s web-based data room has been made available to a number of key steel makers in China, a Japanese trading house, and private fund managers in Europe.”
Royal announced the successful completion of the pre-feasibility study on the Razorback Project on January 30, 2013.
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