Roy?s iron ore deposit at Razorback in Sth Aust has all the...

Roy?s iron ore deposit at Razorback in Sth Aust has all the boxes ticked to be a huge long term mining proposition. For ROY to realise their ambition to prove up in excess of 1 billion tones of resource only then puts them firmly in the sights of the big boys.

Admittedly they have announced a Chinese partner but until I see this party putting up their $10 million next payment I would be looking to see if anyone else has been having a close look at this promising prospect.

For example of how tantalizing a huge deposit of magnetite is to major parties, you need not go any further then looking at the recent takeover bid by Xstrata for Sphere Minerals as per the following ASX report

Sydney - Tuesday - August 24: (RWE Australian Business News) -
Xstrata has made a takeover offer for Sphere Minerals (ASX:SPH) of $2.50 a share which has been recommended by directors. The offer price values Sphere at $428m and is a 61pc premium over the closing price of $1.55 yesterday. The offer will be financed through Xstrata's existing credit facilities and cash on hand.
Xstrata's offer follows extensive consideration by Sphere of the strategic options for Sphere's projects, including discussions with other parties. The Sphere Board concluded that Xstrata?s Offer represented the best opportunity for Sphere shareholders to maximise the value of their investment.
Sphere is a West-Africa focused iron ore company, with interests in three iron ore projects in Mauritania, West Africa:
* the large-scale Guelb el Aouj project through a 50/50 joint venture with Soci?t? Nationale Industrielle et Mini?re (SNIM), Mauritania's state-owned iron ore producer;
* the near-term Askaf project, located 35km south of Guelb el Aouj; and
* the Lebtheinia project, located 90km from the coast. END.

At Sphere?s Mauritania magnetite projects it has been reported by them a maiden inferred resource of 319mt. They can produce 70% Fe by grinding to 80 microns.

In a rough comparison ROY can produce similar recovery ( 70% Fe) by grinding to 75 microns.

The results on ROY davis tube recovery tests confirm the outstanding qualities of this tillitic deposit outlining the low impurities which are well below that acceptable by end users in the concentrate.

The tillitic type magnetite has benefits that outweigh other magnetite deposits in WA as it is not a banded ironstone type, thus having considerable crushing benefits and overall will cost a lot less to produce than other reported deposits. This coupled with close infrastructure can only point to the Razorback project to be a winner.