Latin Resources on the hunt for JV partner

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CONFERENCE CALLER: Australia’s Latin Resources (ASX: LRS) is now on the hunt for a joint venture partner to help develop the company’s large 100 per cent-owned Guadalupito iron and mineral sands project in western Peru.

Addressing the first day of the Paydirt 2013 Latin America Down Under resources conference in Sydney, Latin Resources managing director Chris Gale said the resource had now been developed to such a stage that a mining start in 2015 was a realistic target.

Guadalupito has a 1.4 billion tonne JORC Inferred mineral sands resource averaging 5.7 per cent heavy mineral and a conceptual exploration target of four billion tonnes of mineralised sediments.

The deposit’s gold grades have also been identified of potential economic significance.

 

Latin Resources managing director Chris Gale addressing the conference.

 

“This is a big year for us and we have set a number of goals for the next 12 months,” Gale said.

“Heading that priority is to now find a joint venture partner to help develop the deposit as it is favoured by a port – just 25 kilometres away as well as local water, power and steel smelter infrastructure.

“Importantly, it has a discrete suite of liberated mineral grains of recoverable size of zircon, rutile, ilmenite, titanium and andalusite so that enhances its investment appeal.”

A recently-completed scoping study at Guadalupito has shown favourable support for a dredge mining operation for production of a heavy mineral concentrate.

A resource upgrade to 1.4 billion tonnes in the most recent quarter was a 370 per cent increase, which Gale said positions Latin Resources to become one of the worlds’ biggest mineral sands producers.

“There is also still huge exploration upside at Guadalupito as we have explored barely a tenth of the area,” he said.

“We are commencing mining planning and permitting and hope to be in production by 2015, subject to successful joint venture partner outcomes.

“This maiden output will occur at a time forecasters expect average annual growth in demand across the titanium and zircon markets of at least four per cent until at least 2020.”