Beowulf Mining PLC Regulatory News (BEM)

21 Dec 2009 07:00



Beowulf Mining Plc

("Beowulf" or the "Company")

Ruoutevare Iron Ore Deposit 

Further Metallurgical Tests Update

Beowulf (AIM: BEM; Aktietorget: BEO), the AIM and Aktietorget traded mineral exploration company which owns several exploration projects in Sweden, is pleased to announce that the Company has received further results of ongoing bench scale metallurgical tests on iron ore from its 100%-owned Ruoutevare deposit in Northern Sweden. 

The tests are being conducted by MINPRO AB's ("MINPRO") research laboratory at Stråssa, Central Sweden and the latest results show a 5% increase to 95% in the iron content of the final product versus the previous test results announced in November 2009.

Highlights:

Based on large samples (>50kg) from the outcropping ore, the tests serve to further validate and optimise the earlier confirmed process using reduction techniques, in a laboratory scale mechanical oven, to fully extract the iron, titanium and vanadium from the Ruoutevare titanium-magnetite ore. 

Working on crushed and milled Ruoutevare ore material, the latest tests show that a final product of high grade sponge iron powder containing up to 95% iron (Fe) with 1.5% titanium (Ti) can be obtained. The head grades of Fe 52.1% and TiO2 11.4% from the milled ore material studied compare very favourably with the study carried out on similar material in the 1970s by the Geological Survey of Sweden showing Fe 53.0% and TiO2 12.3%. 

New bench scale tests to produce a high grade iron ore pellet feed product have been successful, resulting in a magnetite pellet feed product containing 67.8% Fe of high commercial quality. The iron content of the concentrate is higher than expected, and the levels of contaminants (of other metals) like phosphorous (and sulphur (are all considered to be low by general industry standards.

The successful results to date are guiding the Company towards the development of simple process flow sheets for the production of commercial quality magnetite iron concentrates from the Ruoutevare deposit. 

The process

The present study on large samples shows that the technique developed previously remains valid. By subjecting the milled material to sub-melting temperatures all of the iron which is not bonded to ilmenite is reduced, and by a subsequent magnetic separation technique, yields a sponge iron powder with high iron content and a high metallisation level. By using petroleum coke as a reducing agent and adding soda, high metallisation levels have been achieved at 7750 C. 

Subsequent reduction tests have shown that by adding a chloride (Na-, Ca- and Fe- chloride respectively have been tested) a segregation is obtained with high selectivity towards both ilmenite and vanadium. 

The latest tests produced a sponge iron powder with a grade of 95% Fe, 1.4% Ti and less than 0.02% V, with a metallisation level of iron up to 93% and the exchange of iron above 90%. The amount of iron sponge powder obtained is more than 60% of the initial concentrate by weight. 

The present metallurgical test results on the Ruoutevare iron ore are very encouraging and in line with accepted figures for comparable contract specifications of sponge iron and pellet feed fines from potential international clients. 

Further test programme

Further planned tests intend to demonstrate that after extraction of Ti and V, the remaining iron can be recycled to the reduction process so that an even higher exchange of iron is obtained. More than 97% of the Ti and V-content of the concentrate occurs together with ilmenite-bonded iron and surplus coke in the non-magnetic product. After recovering the coke, this rest product is a very suitable source from which to obtain clean TiO2 from ilmenite by using the chlorination process traditionally employed by titanium producers. In addition, the vanadium can be leached from this product by HCl leaching through established processes. The end product will be V2O5 (vanadium pentoxide).

By using mainly closed systems, the exchanges for all products will be very high whilst atmospheric emissions and environmental impact will be minimised. For example, a large part of the energy required to vapourise the FeCl-solution can be obtained by burning the process gas from the mechanical oven. 

MINPRO has indicated that ongoing tests to apply the reduction/segregation process should further improve the quality of the sponge iron powder obtainable from the Ruoutevare iron ore deposit. 

Pellet feed product programme

As announced previously, to meet demands from potential clients the ongoing tests by MINPRO have been expanded to investigate the possibility of producing a high grade pellet feed product from the  Ruoutevare ore. 

Beowulf is pleased to announce that a high grade magnetite pellet feed product containing 67.8% of iron has been obtained from initial testwork. 

These initial results compare favourably with similar products delivered by iron ore mining operators such as LKAB whose pellet feeds range from 66.6% to 67.9% of iron content.

Pellets are sintered, centimetre-sized spheres of high iron content and uniform quality. Such iron ore products are often customised for steel producing operators using either blast furnace (BF) pellets or direct reduction (DF) pellets. 

The results of MINPRO's successful metallurgical studies will provide the basis for a preliminary economic evaluation study on the Ruoutevare project following which pilot plant studies can be planned. 

Detailed metallurgical testing to obtain a marketable concentrate from the Ruoutevare deposit was initially carried out in the 1970s by the Swedish government-owned iron ore mining company LKAB with subsequent work conducted by the Finnish steel company Rautaruukki. The present metallurgical work by MINPRO is an ongoing study aiming to improve these historic results and obtain highly commercial end products.

Clive Sinclair-Poulton, Chairman of Beowulf commented: 

"These latest metallurgical results confirm the potential of the Ruoutevare project - where we have over 140m tonnes at 39% Fe inferred - and we expect the ongoing studies to show further positive results, in due course, that will enhance the commercial aspects of the project." 

Dr Jan Ola Larsson (Fil. Kand, PhD, DIC), has reviewed and approved the technical information contained within this announcement in his capacity as a qualified person, as required under the AIM rules. Dr Larsson is Technical Director of the Company and has over 30 years relevant experience within the natural resources sector.

Enquiries:

Notes to editors:

The Ruoutevare Magnetite Project is 100%-owned by Beowulf, and covers 850 hectares 1,100km north of Stockholm in the Norrbotten County, and about 10km north-west of the minor village of Kvikkjokk. The 2.3 billion tonne Kiruna iron ore mine, the world's second largest underground mine, is located approximately 180km northeast and the Malmberget iron ore mine is located 120km to the east.

There appears to be good potential to substantially increase the Ruoutevare resource by drilling extensions to the existing resource and by testing other magnetite bearing zones in the vicinity of the deposit.

In August 2008 Beowulf announced an Inferred Mineral Resource on Ruoutevare showing 140 million tonnes (Mt) grading 39.1% iron (Fe), 5.7% titanium (Ti) and 0.2% vanadium (V) (cut-off grade of 30% Fe).

In addition to the 140 million tonnes JORC compliant Inferred Resource at Ruoutevare the Company also owns the nearby Kallak Magnetite Project, which has total target iron mineralisation of 120 million tonnes at 35 - 42% Fe.