During the September quarter, the Radio Hill nickel mine completed operations following the depletion of the massive sulphide resource. This represented a 5 month extension to the original mine life.
Mining ceased on 6 September, 2002 and production operations were completed on 13 September2002.
During the quarter 45,742 tonnes of ore were treated to yield 7,886 tonnes of nickel concentrate for sale to WMC Resources Ltd - Kambalda. Contained metal was 1,044 tonnes of nickel, 677 tonnes of copper and 59 tonnes of cobalt.
On 21 September 2002 a final shipment of copper concentrate was made and sold to the Jinchuan Group Ltd. The shipment comprised 4,008 tonnes of bulk copper "high grade" concentrate and 388 tonnes of bagged "low grade" concentrate. Total contained copper was 968 tonnes and 135 tonnes of nickel.
The Radio Hill mine operated for almost four and a half years and produced some 21,000 tonnes of nickel and 16,000 tonnes of copper from 900,000 tonnes of ore. It produced concentrates returning A$140 million, an operating surplus before State Government royalties, exploration, corporate and funding charges etc, of $63 million and a direct operating cash flow of $45 million. It has left Titan well cashed up to the tune of $24 million.
The key tenements involved in the operation plus the flotation treatment plant and all associated equipment and infrastructure were sold to Fox Resources Ltd for $875,000 cash plus the assumption (by Fox Resources Ltd) of total responsibility for all rehabilitation works needed for closure of the site.
Fox Resources Ltd also exercised its option to purchase the disseminated, low-grade mineralisation situated stratigraphically above the mined-out massive sulphide orebody for $75,000 cash. This payment has been deferred by mutual agreement until the end of June 2003.
Fox Resources Ltd also has an option to purchase the Mt Sholl low grade nickel sulphide deposits from Titan Resources NL for $200,000 cash, unless Titan Resources NL elects to proceed with development of these deposits within two years.
Titan Resources NL retains a one per cent royalty on all production from these leases and from the Radio Hill and Mt Sholl deposits.
BIOHEAP(TM) PROCESS DEVELOPMENT
The field trials on Mt Sholl nickel/copper/cobalt ore, which have been in progress over the past two years at Radio Hill, were completed during September, 2002. The last phase comprised the testing of the use of ion exchange resin for product recovery as part of the overall process flow sheet.
The pilot plant has been disassembled and stored in containers, ready for its next application. The heaps have been removed and the pads sterilised prior to transfer of the site to Fox Resources Ltd.
The results of the second trial heap were consistent with the first, an overall nickel recovery of approximately 90 percent having been achieved.
Overall, the BioHeap(TM) trials at Radio Hill have been a real success. The conclusions drawn can be summarised as:
(i) The practical application of the proprietary bacterial strain to the oxidation, dissolution and thereby leaching in a pregnant liquor solution (PLS) is eminently suitable for nickel sulphide ores.
(ii) The identification and control of the principal process parameters has been completed and is suitable for large scale commercial use.
(iii) One of the major cost factors, acid consumption, is substantially lower in a field (large scale) environment than indicated by laboratory tests. This factor will vary from ore to ore and is most affected by high magnesium content.
(iv) The "back-end" part of the overall process, being the recovery of a saleable product from the PLS, comprises a number of alternatives dependent on scale of operation, project location and market factors. The choices of nickel precipitation to produce a refinery feed (carbonate, hydroxide or sulphide), solvent extraction and electro winning, ion exchange to be followed by several alternatives, are all possible and will vary with the specific ore deposit.
(v) The successful leaching of the total of the available ("liberated") chalcopyrite confirmed the unique characteristics of the BioHeap(TM) bacteria and the process.
Work will now concentrate on moving towards a commercial-scale operation.
CHINA - JINCHUAN GROUP LTD
Laboratory column tests of Jinchuan nickel ore samples have resulted in a nickel recovery of 97 per cent over 12 months with further laboratory tests continuing to define optimum leaching conditions.
As part of the joint development program between Jinchuan and Titan, a 5,000 tonne trial heap has been constructed at Jinchuan to test cold weather operating techniques, and to minimise the effects of the ore's high magnesium content. Titan personnel are being seconded to Jinchuan to work on this part of the program, prior to the formalisation of the Jinchuan/Titan joint venture.
EXPLORATION
CARR BOYD
A program of drilling and exploration is in progress at Titan's wholly owned Carr Boyd project located some 70km north-northeast of Kalgoorlie. Titan's tenement holding in the area covers some 85sqkm and overlies the Carr Boyd layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion which is highly prospective for nickel and other base metal sulphides as well as PGM's and gold. The current work program involves RC and diamond drilling in the immediate vicinity of the current ore shoots and geophysics, geochemistry, RAB and RC drilling to identify "new" mineralisation outside of the mine area.
RESOURCE DEFINITION DRILLING
Resource definition drilling continued throughout the quarter, with the aims of upgrading and confirming the existing resource to JORC standards and to identify additional mineralisation outside the current ore envelope. Drilling for the quarter consisted of 20 RC holes for 2,192m and 10 NQ2 diamond holes for 1,530m.
Highlights from this drilling include:
* Delineation of down plunge depth extensions of the number one shoot with intersections of massive-breccia ore in holes CBD18 and CBC37.
* Identification of significant near surface nickel sulphide mineralisation above the number 2-3 shoots intersected in hole CBC48.
* Confirmation of potential to substantially upgrade the tonnage of number 4 shoot, with ore intersections in CBD17 and CBD17W1.
* The identification of a potential new ore shoot approximately 90m to the west of shoots 2-3.
Significant intersections from drill holes mentioned above are shown in Table 1.
Further RC drilling has been scheduled to test to the west of shoots 2 and 3 where an intersection of mylonitic ultramafic rock of similar geochemistry to rocks within the existing shoots returned nickel sulphide mineralisation (CBC55 1m @ 0.82% Ni from 98m). This intersection could potentially represent the periphery of southwest plunging shoot similar in nature to the shoots already defined at Carr Boyd.
A reinterpretation of the geology and ore shoots within the Carr Boyd mine area is underway and will facilitate the calculation of an updated resource figure.
WIDGIEMOOLTHA NORTH
The North Widgiemooltha project is located 80km southof Kalgoorlie and 30km southwest of Kambalda. The tenements overlie rocks of the Norseman - Wiluna greenstone belt. The ultramafic rocks in the Widgiemooltha North area have long been recognised as the host for large tonnage, high-grade, nickel sulphide deposits. Within the project area WMC Resources Ltd recognised four deposits hosting an aggregate of 44,000 tonnes of contained nickel, they also identified a number of targets with the potential of hosting nickel sulphides.
An RC drill program of fifteen holes for 2,440m was carried out at the Armstrong prospect (formerly Moore) with the aims of testing the integrity of the WMC resource of 554,237t @ 1.77% Ni, and to test for plunge extensions to the mineralisation. All holes intersected a west dipping sequence of ultramafic flows overlying a footwall basalt unit. Sulphides of varying thickness and tenor were noted in most holes. Drilling has established the potential for extensions to the mineralisation both up and down the plunge of the main shoot, as well as the continuity of a high grade 'core' to the mineralisation.
Results received to date are shown below in Table 2.
TABLE 2 DRILL HOLE INTERSECTIONS-WIDGIEMOOLTHA NORTH
All hole co-ordinates in AMG zone 51, GDA94 Datum. * Denotes composite assay with re-splits to follow
The high-grade drill intercept in hole WDC1, shown in Table 2, is situated at the southern, near-surface portion of the Armstrong massive nickel sulphide ore shoot. With the encouragement provided by this initial drilling program, Titan is confident that further work can significantly upgrade the current resource estimate.
The McEwen nickel sulphide mineralisation (formerly 360N) is situated to the north of Armstrong deposit. WMC Resources Ltd previously has estimated a resource of 1,222,566 tonnes at 1.81% nickel for McEwen. The highly prospective basalt-ultramafic basal contact is continuous over the 2.5kilometres between the Armstrong and McEwen deposits and remains virtually untested. The company's on-going exploration will focus on confirming and expanding the current resource estimates and will target this intervening area for the identification of more massive nickel sulphide mineralisation.
Drilling will continue during the December quarter.
W J Ryan MANAGING DIRECTOR
For further information on these matters and on Titan Resources NL in general please contact:
The mineral resources detailed in this report accurately reflect information compiled by Karilyn Farmer of Titan Resources NL who has relevant experience in relation to the mineralisation being reported on to qualify as a Competent Person as defined by the Australasian Code for Reporting of Identified Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.
TIR Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held