By - Ankit Sethi
Highlights
- Surefire owns varied projects -- including vanadium, gold, and magnetite -- in the Western Australia (WA) region
- The company’s Victory Bore Project (vanadium) is looking to tap the bourgeoning global battery sector
- During the reporting period, assay results at Kooline showed high-grade lead and silver assays (16.2% and 41 g/t, respectively)
Perth (Western Australia) based Surefire Resources (ASX: SRN) -- having exploration licences for its Vanadium, Magnetite and Gold projects -- recently released the company's Report for the half year ended 31 December 2022. The Report highlights progresses made at SRN's fully owned interests during the reporting period. Surefire "advanced its high value portfolio" during the reporting period.
The company reported activities at Victory Bore Project, Yidby Gold Project, Perenjori Iron Ore, and Kooline Silver-Lead Project. Below are the major highlights included in the Half-Year Report.
Victory Bore Project
The deposits are in Western Australia, almost 530 km north of Perth city. Victory Bore has vanadium-titanium-magnetite rich layers. These multiple stacked layers are up to 80 metres wide and are within a layered gabbro. SRN states that the weathering is shallow, with fresh rock logged from 10 metres to 25 metres beneath the surface. The Victory Bore - Unaly Hill host provides a yet-to-be-fully-tested total strike length of more than 20 km.
Source: SRN Presentation dated 22 March 2023
It is mentioned that the deposits, which are among the largest vanadium resources in the country, hold more than 2.2 billion pounds vanadium pentoxide. Subsequent to the reporting period, in February this year, Surefire reported a 56% increase in the global mineral resource. This was 321 Mt @ 0.43% vanadium pentoxide, 24.9% Fe, and 5.9% Titanium dioxide.
Notably, Vanadium is classified as a critical mineral in multiple nations including the US and Australia, with use in steel strengthening and vanadium redox flow battery storage systems.
Yidby Gold Project
This lies in close proximity to the Great Northern Highway, and 40 km southwest of Paynes Find (Western Australia). The Project has three granted exploration licences for 114 sq. km. At the three prospects, considerable gold mineralisation has been detected. These are linked to the historical Delaney Well and Cashens Find, and also to SRN’s late discovery at Yidby Road Prospect.
Core logging is complete and SRN is reviewing the initial report. Metallurgical tests on RC composite samples returned total recoveries of Gold between 97.6% and 99.5%, and quick extraction (two to four hours). It also indicated low reagents consumptions, and high gravity recoverable gold (43.2% to 67.0%).
Perenjori Iron Ore and REE
This Western Australia located project is closer to the coast as compared to other magnetite projects in the region. Surefire states that the project is well positioned for high-grade iron concentrates deliveries, finding use in zero-carbon steel plants. The Perenjori Premium Iron Project's Exploration Target, according to ASX release dated 3 February 2022, is 870 Mt (million tonnes) to 1,240 Mt (29% to 41% Fe grade), exclusive of the Inferred Resource (depicted below).
Source: SRN ASX announcement dated 16 March 2023; Image description: Inferred Resources of the Perenjori Iron Ore Project (ASX : QNL 27 September 2013)
SRN intends to undertake next phases of work and bring Perenjori to pre-feasibility study stage.
Kooline Silver-Gold Project
This Ashburton region (Western Australia) located project has strike of prospective Pb-Ag and Cu mineralisation. Assay results of September last year show high-grade lead and silver assays -- 16.2% and 41 g/t, respectively. Surefire has stated that it intends to undertake further reconnaissance work this year.