From The Dirt in The Australian on Aug 11. Focus is courtesy of...

From The Dirt in The Australian on Aug 11. Focus is courtesy of Diatreme Resources. Their claims to be the junior best placed to meet a shortage in 2012 don't sit too well in comparison with GUN. Our resources are larger (reserves 50% higher than what they hope to prove and overall HM resources much much higher) and we should be in production up to 2 years at least before them. Still it's good to see some talk out there about Zircon.


Zircon shortage on horizon

Matt Chambers | August 11, 2009
Article from: The Australian

THE way Diatreme Resources boss Tony Fawdon tells it, there is a zircon shortage coming in 2012 and Australia is the place that is going to be best able to fill it.
Zircon, used in such diverse applications as tiles, toilets and nuclear reactors, never quite hit the highs many thought it would in the past boom (some suggest because of poor marketing), however it has been heading higher while other markets crashed and is now at about $US900 a tonne, from around $US800 a few years back.

Iluka, the world’s biggest zircon producer, and Diatreme, have big portions of land on the previous ancient coast line that is the Eucla Basin, which straddles the WA-SA border.

The region, where Iluka is building its Jacinth-Ambrosia project, is set to become a major zircon supply centre.

Mr Fawdon says Diatreme is the junior best placed to fill a 250,000 tonnes a year supply void tipped for 2012.

The company is planning a resource upgrade for its Cyclone deposit in September from its current 60 million tonnes at 3.1 per cent heavy sands, after which it plans a feasibility study it hopes hope to finish in 2012.

Image Resources has neighbouring ground, and if all goes swimmingly and they can shore up a 150 to 200 million tonne reserve together, most of which will be Diatreme’s, a 200,000 tonne a year zircon mine could be on the horizon.

Things are heating up in the Eucla, and Mr Fawdon said Iluka’s activity there, and to a lesser extent Diatreme’s have made Ceduna Australia’s fastest-growing town.