McLaren Minerals hasofficially fired up the air core rig to get...

McLaren Minerals hasofficially fired up the air core rig to get its latest drilling campaignunderway at the company’s flagship McLaren titanium sands project in WesternAustralia’s Eucla Basin.

The program, whichkicked off last week, is designed to refine resource estimates and unlockadditional high-grade titanium mineralisation.

Infill drilling willfocus on enhancing the company’s confidence in the project’s existing280-million-tonne global resource, while extension drilling will targetpreviously identified mineralised zones beyond the known deposit.

The program’s toppriority is to collect about five tonnes of sample material, which will be sentto IHC Mining’s laboratory in Queensland to conduct further metallurgicalstudies.

This data is a keypiece of the puzzle needed to complete a project prefeasibility study nowunderway and will also be used to refine an optimal strategy to deal withresidual clay impurities, known as slimes.

Earlier testingconfirmed a strong recovery rate of 75 per cent for ilmenite, altered ilmeniteand titanium dioxide minerals when processed through wet concentration andbeneficiation plants. Titanium recovery reached 57pc, while zircon recoverystood at an impressive 70pc.

The final productalso proved to be of high quality - ilmenite met the standards for sulphateilmenite, while rutile had an exceptional 95.7pc titanium dioxide content withminimal iron impurities of just 1.5pc. The zircon contained less than 265 partsper million of uranium and thorium, which is well within industry safetystandards.

Slimes were reducedto under 200 grams per tonne when a 3pc gypsum settling agent was added,improving overall process efficiency.

McLaren will startsending a steady stream of metallurgical samples for test work within the nexttwo weeks, while analytical samples will be processed and dispatched weekly.

The company isplanning to run about 6000 metres of air core drilling in a six-week campaigndesigned by ERM Australia Consultants.

The McLaren projectis strategically positioned in the Eucla Basin close to excellent roads andrail infrastructure that runs directly to the Port of Esperance.

Not only will theprogram provide essential material for further metallurgical optimisation andflowsheet validation, but it is also designed to increase confidence in thecurrent inferred and indicated resource and explore potential extensions,ensuring we continue to progress towards commercial production.

McLaren Mineral’s managing director Simon Finnis

The drilling programcomes as the deposit’s key ingredient ilmenite – the main source of titaniumoxide primarily for white pigment – continues to trade at an impressive US$300(AU$443) per tonne. Strong market demand has continued to dominate the ilmenitemarket because of supply deficits and mine closures throughout Africa.

Titanium, a criticalmineral essential for aerospace, defence and energy applications, represents asignificant market opportunity for McLaren. The company acquired the projectsix months ago for a modest $150,000 in cash, with additional share entitlementscontingent on achieving feasibility milestones.

With global demandfor titanium strengthening, McLaren is well-positioned to capitalise on marketdynamics. As drilling progresses, punters will be keen to catch up on a steadyflow of assay results and metallurgical data that may offer further clarity onthe project’s enormous economic potential.