When researching this some time ago, and thanks to a tip from a BHP local, I was directed to Tronox = who process mineral sands in Broken Hill from a mine between Mildura and Broken Hill and produce 450,000 tonnes per annum of Heavy Mineral Concentrate.
From the fact sheet of Tronox about this project:
"The Atlas Mine forms part of the Atlas-Campaspe Project, which beganextractive mining in 2022 with a project mine life of 10 years. A dry miningtechnique is used to extract ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene and zircon from ancientcoastal deposits [emphasis added] . The ore is initially concentrated at site before the heavymineral concentrate is trucked to the Ivanhoe rail siding, where it is thentransported via train to the Mineral Separation Plant at Broken Hill".
"It is estimated that our operations in the region and across Australia contribute morethan US$544 million per annum in salaries, royalties and payment to Australian suppliers"
Therefore, given that they are already dry grinding - why not see what else can be extracted out of the silica sands and if that adds another revenue stream.
In the recent interview when Tom was talking about the work with CSIRO, his comment was "from little things, bit things grow".
I like how they are looking into all of these things before they are finalising the processing flow and design. Could be nothing. Could be something, but they are certainly leaving no stone unturned!
HIO Price at posting:
2.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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