Melville Bay Iron30 Sep 2021 10:45
GreenRoc’s Melville Bay Iron Project is located within the same geological belt, the Committee Belt, as the world-class Mary River iron ore mine, operated by ArcelorMittal and Nunavut Iron Ore, across Baffin Bay in far northern Canada.
More than 4000 metres of historic drilling at Melville Bay Iron has confirmed the presence of a folded magnetite-banded iron formation (BIF) sequence with a true thickness of 20-50m and a strike length of approximately 2.7km, and has resulted in the declaration of a Mineral Resource Estimate of 67Mt at 31.4% iron (Fe).
Previous exploration targets at Melville Bay Iron have been in the range of 93-269 million tonnes at 27-47% Fe, showing the potential for extension drilling to add significant tonnes to the existing declared resource. Completed metallurgical test work has also demonstrated the ability to produce a high quality, coarse grained magnetite concentrate at Melville Bay, grading 70% Fe, with low impurities (2.0% SiO2, 0.3% Al2O3 and 0.01% P).
Several high-grade assay results (more than 60% Fe) and a drill intersection grading 68.2% Fe, indicate that high-grade, high-value Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) iron is found at Melville Bay, in particular at the Haematite Nunatak target.
The potential for DSO material in the Committee Belt is amply demonstrated by the several high-grade deposits which comprise the Mary River Iron Ore Project, including the Mary River Deposit No.1, which has a declared Mineral Resource of more than 350 million tonnes at an average grade of 64% Fe and has been in production since 2014, with iron ore sales of around 4 million tonnes per annum exported to markets in the UK, Europe and Japan.