FinnAust Mining PLC LON:FAM CEO Roderick McIllree said, “Pituffik has been proven to host large and high-grade accumulations of low-impurity primary ilmenite. Work will continue to define development scenarios for this deposit leading to trade off studies later in the year, and our target for the year end is to define a maiden resource and to conclude initial sales agreements including metallurgical parcels obtained from the 2017 bulks sampling programme. KeyPointE and QuedTech are a natural fit for us and are recognised experts in the space. They complement our growing team of industry experts as we progress this unique project towards development.”
FinnAust Mining plc, the AIM and FSE listed company with projects in Greenland, Finland and Austria, has told DirectorsTalk that it has appointed KeyPointE Pty Ltd and QuedTech Pty Ltd to complete the next phase of metallurgical test work at the Company’s Pituffik Titanium Project in Greenland (‘Pituffik’). Both groups have a good understanding of the mineral sands industry and are industry experts.
Work will immediately begin on the production of a high purity ilmenite concentrate for analysis and distribution, a programme expected to be completed within just a few weeks. Once this has been completed attention will turn to scaling up and optimising the process route identified in order to support large-scale production of a similar high purity ilmenite concentrate from the Pituffik black sands. This will ultimately evolve to include pilot scale continuous testing later in the year.
Following this, KeyPointE and QuedTech will look to finalise the processing flowsheet, which will form the basis for plant design and optimisation, and will advise on processing routes in order to optimise concentrate production rates and operating efficiencies. Work to-date has identified Pituffik as being a low impurity primary ilmenite occurrence with potential to be in the top percentile of projects worldwide in terms of volume and grade.
This results from the above will provide important information for design and engineering works that will start shortly and conclude with trade-off studies to determine the best development scenario for inclusion in an exploitation application, which we are aiming to lodge Q1 next year. More information is expected shortly on this aspect.
