LONDON (Alliance News) - Strategic Minerals PLC Monday said it has begun mineralogical test work to support market and process design reviews on magnetite material from its Cobre project in the US state of New Mexico.
In a statement, the mineral exploration and development company said the work is in line with its strategy of focusing on the higher-value heavy dense media (HDM) market.
According to Strategic Minerals, the test work will identify the characteristics of the Cobre material and its suitability to the HDM market. More specifically, the test work will look at the size distribution of the Cobre material and the magnetic properties of the potential HDM product.
It said the test work is being conducted by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation at its Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies.
HDM is a high grade magnetite iron product, used in coal production, water filtration, sintering, magnets and other industries.
"This initial phase of test work is an important step in evaluating the viability of producing a suitable HDM product. We want to add value to our existing business by pursuing the HDM market which is not directly linked to the iron ore price and generally sells at a significant premium to normal iron ore product. We expect to have results within the quarter, which will guide us on further work where required," Executive Chairman Julien McInally said in a statement.
Strategic Minerals shares were Monday quoted down 7.7% at 0.600p.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Strategic Minerals (SML)