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SOUTH Africa?s FirstRand Group has hopped on the register of Peruvian focused iron sands play Latin Resources ahead of the company?s resource definition work in coming months. As with fellow Latin backer Cape Lambert Resources, the South Africans will be hoping the project lives up to a 2 billion tonne exploration target.

RMB Resources, which is the mining focused arm of FirstRand Group, one of South Africa?s largest banks, has invested a modest $A2 million in the company. Tony Sage?s Cape Lambert, along with a number of other ?sophisticated? investors, also participated in another $A2 million raising.

At the same time, the explorer has launched a shareholder purchase plan which could raise up to $A7.7 million.

The investment from RMB is small but Latin managing director Chris Gale said it was a sign of the group?s interest in the intriguing Gaudalupito iron sands project.

?It?s been wonderful to get RMB Resources on the register ? they?ve had experience in investing in other mineral sands projects in the past and they really like what we?ve got in Peru at Gaudalupito and now that we have some further investment we can take the project further,? Gale said.

Gaudalupito, located on Peru?s central-north coast on the Pacific, is first and foremost an iron sands play although recent studies have indicated that along with magnetite the project could also host gold, ilmenite and zircon, as well as rare earths. Latin has not yet defined a resource but Gale said the company was hoping to make an announcement by September this year.

However, the company does have an ambitious exploration target of some 2 billion tonnes of iron sands. Previous work had indicated mineralisation could grade between 10-15% for the magnetite, with other minerals at lower but potentially economic levels, Gale said.

?What bought the project to our attention was a government report produced in 1984 on work they did on the concession we now hold. They came up with the same sort of information that we did, which is the region is very rich in mineral sands,? he said.

?The reason for that is that the Santa River ? the second largest river in Peru ? opens up onto the ocean on the Pacific side of South America. If you think about the Andes and the material which has been coming down through the Andes over the years and has washed up against this beachline ? that?s why we think it?s going to be a world-class mineral deposit.?

A grade estimate of 15% magnetite seems to be on the low-side compared to Australia?s hard rock magnetite plays, which have iron grades more than double that. But Gale explained the nature of iron sands meant the comparison was invalid, because the magnetite was so easily processed out of the sediment.

?As my geologist said to me, mother nature has done all the work ? the iron has been liberated through the years by the river and ocean, so there won?t be any crushing, grinding or flotation required, just simple spiral concentration magnetic separation,? he said.

?And this would be the cheapest form of production for that form of mineral ? so it ticked a lot of boxes for us.?

In 2Bt of mineralised sediment the project could host 100-150 million tonnes of magnetite, providing ?plenty of mine life? for a smaller scale operation without even considering what the other minerals could do for the bottom line.

?Hosting those other minerals is a big bonus. It?s quite exciting,? Gale said.

The company is hoping to have scoping studies on the project finalised by the end of the year as the resource definition drilling goes ahead.

As part of the scoping study, it expects to outline a sales strategy that will involve concentrate either exported from the port of Chimbote, 25km to the south, or sold directly to Brazilian steel producer (the world?s 14th largest steelmaker) Gerbau Group which owns a steel smelter at the port.

?Gerbau produce 20Mt of steel a year in the Americas; they have 52 plants, and one of these plants is at Chimbote and so there is an opportunity for us to sell magnetite to their steel plant,? Gale said.

Meanwhile, Cape Lambert, which has its metaphorical fingers in many pies, has been the largest shareholder in the company from day one and currently holds a 17% stake in Latin.

The Sage vehicle has had a habit of picking winners in the past, although Latin remains an early-days proposition.