North Zone Resource Expanded By 433 Mt To 809.1 Mt inferred Mineral Resources
Vanadium One Iron Corp. (TSXV:VONE) has announced an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its Mont Sorcier Iron and Vanadium project located in Chibougamau, Quebec.
The updated resource incorporates results from the 2020 drill programme which focused on defining the eastern extension of the North Zone as well as some infill in the North Zone. This has resulted in an increase in the total Inferred Mineral Resource tonnage in the North Zone from 376 Mt to 809.1 Mt at 34.2% magnetite, an addition of 433 Mt or a 115% increase.
Total Inferred Resources for both the North Zone and South Zone are estimated at 953.7 Mt grading 32.8% magnetite, with the potential to produce 313 Mt of magnetite concentrate grading 64% Fe and 0.6% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5).
Total Indicated Mineral Resources remain unchanged and are estimated to be 113.5 Mt grading 30.9% magnetite, with the potential to produce 35.0 Mt of magnetite concentrate grading 65.3% Fe and 0.6% V2O5. Indicated Mineral Resources have only been estimated at the South Zone.
“We are very pleased to have accomplished our drilling target to significantly expand the Mineral Resources at Mont Sorcier, with over 0.95 billion tonnes in the Inferred category and over 0.11 billion tonnes in the Indicated category, adding further support and confidence to the project’s inherent viability,’ President and CEO, Cliff Hale-Sanders, said.
‘With the expanded resource in hand, the recent funding completed, and an offtake agreement with Glencore in place, we will now turn our attention to rapidly moving the Mont Sorcier project towards feasibility and ultimately production.
“Based upon historical test work completed by Campbell Mines in the mid 1970’s and reviewed by Hatch in 1975, we expect final concentrate results to exceed 65% Fe as shown in larger scale testwork programmes which will be part of the planned metallurgical programmes going forward.”
Vanadium One will begin a new drill programme shortly to convert a large proportion of Inferred mineral resources into higher confidence categories (Indicated or Measured resources). At the same time, the company will commence initial base line environmental studies, community consultations and other development activities to support the implementation of a mine.
The Mont Sorcier iron ore deposit has two zones, known as the North Zone and the South Zone. The North Zone is estimated to hold Inferred Mineral Resources of 809.1 Mt grading 34.2% magnetite, with potential to produce 277 Mt of magnetite concentrate grading 63.5% Fe and 0.6% V2O5.
This represents an increase of 432 Mt of Inferred Mineral Resource in the North Zone. The South Zone is unchanged and it is estimated to host 113.5 Mt of Indicated Mineral Resources grading 30.1% magnetite, with potential to produce 35.0 million tonnes of concentrate grading 65.3% Fe and 0.60% V2O5, and with low TiO2 (1.2%) in the magnetite concentrate. The South Zone is estimated to hold additional Inferred Mineral Resources of 144.6 Mt grading 24.9% magnetite, with potential to produce 36.1 Mt of concentrate grading 66.9% Fe and 0.50% V2O5.
Recent metallurgical testwork to assess concentrate grades has used the Davis Tube Test (DTT) method, which is a magnetic separation test on a small 50-gram portion of crushed sample preparation. Magnetic separation is expected to be more efficient when scaled up to larger samples and during production as indicated in historical testwork.
