Was just reading a little bit of old documents about our 100% owned kaolin/halloysite Mount Hope tenement. The most here know probably about the non-jorc resource estimate of the 12,26mt, but here is some info for in between. I think its not unreasonable to expect we have more than one dry-processing plant in the future. Maybe one at mount hope, one at careys well, one for the pure halloysite at camel lake... could easily funded from cashflows and will 100% ours. bit of work to do but i think that could well be fasttracked.
Technical work conducted on samples taken from later RC drilling confirmed the existence of high value halloysite kaolin material equivalent to the Poochera Project Carey’s Well deposit.
The previous work resulted in a historical kaolin resource of 12.26Mt consisting of approximately 74% filler quality and 26% coating quality material (see Appendix A), along with the granting of two Mining Leases and the collection of a 40 tonne bulk sample. Subsequent mineralogical analysis by the South Australian Department of Mines and Energy in 1989 showed the presence of a significant amount of halloysite kaolin, which is a rare and higher value form of the mineral, although not suitable for use in paper making.
The Mt Hope Deposit kaolin historical estimate was based on a manual polygonal estimate of 36 ‘air rotary flush’ (air core) holes from an approximate total 65‐70 holes, some 26 holes were cased to the overburden/kaolin interface. Holes were drilled vertically and surveyed for N, E, RL. Samples were collected as slurry and contamination was minimised by cleaning out the hole at the end of each rod. Contamination was easily determined visually due to changing colorations. Database integrity was not provided although data was manually recorded and reported. Holes were geologically logged and sampled on visual kaolin whiteness. Geological sections were used to determine the upper and lower limits of the kaolin mineralization and calculate widths. Samples were sent to Amdel in Adelaide (independent laboratory) for sizing, brightness, yellowness, viscosity and elemental analysis. The ‐20micron fraction ranged from 27‐68% and the ‐2micron fraction was used for chemical analysis. A 40 tonne bulk sample was collected from within the resource envelope and sent to Germany for analysis, including whiteness, hue, grit content and grain size distribution. Results determined that the R457 whiteness of 82% and other measures were equivalent to English and American paper coating clays. Based on the 40t bulksample results it was estimated 35% of the kaolin ore was kaolin final product with an estimated 74% filler quality and 26% coating quality. No halloysite analysis was included in the historical estimation.
The Mt Hope Deposit and surrounds were drilled with approximately 65‐70 ‘air rotary flush’ hole drilled between Feb 1972 and May 1973 including and within 3km of the deposit, with 26 holes cased to the overburden/kaolin interface. Holes were geologically logged andsampled on visual kaolin whiteness. 36 of the holes showed goodconsistent areal extent and thickness of white kaolin averaging 14m thick. Independent lab, Robertson Research (Australia) PL on the early samples conducted brightness, yellowness and viscosity measurements with brightness determination of 87 and yellowness of 2 with no bleaching. And after intense tests a viscosity index of 69.9 weight %. Geologisches Landesamt Westphalia , Germany conducted sizing distribution on 82 samples finding 39.1% passes ‐20 micron representing pure kaolin, of that 13.3% pass ‐2micron , indicated 2/3 of the kaolin could be utilised for filler and 1/3 for coating.
ADN Price at posting:
1.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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