The Governor Broome Project is Astute 100% owned Heavy Mineral Sands (HMS) Project located in the minerals sand rich coastal plains of Western Australia and the Company has to date defined a Measured JORC Resource of 28.4 Mt @ 4.4% Heavy Minerals (HM), an Indicated JORC Resource of 66 Mt @ 4.5% Heavy Minerals (HM) and Inferred JORC Resource of 7 Mt 3.5% HM. In 2021, the Company acquired the remaining 80% of the Jack Track Deposit from Iluka Resources Limited, increasing its interest to 100% of this high-grade part of the project.
With combined JORC resources of some 101 Mt at a grade of 4.5%, the Governor Broome Project demonstrates the potential to generate economic cash flow with conventional mining techniques to produce a saleable heavy mineral concentrate.
Astute carried out metallurgical testwork 2t+ bulk samples from Governor Broome West and Jack Track, which were tested for wet and dry processing, successfully producing heavy mineral concentrates (HMC) from conventional wet separation methods, and dry processing of the HMC to produce ilmenite, rutile and zircon products, with monazite byproduct.
A Scoping study assessing the Governor Broome Project, completed by TZMI, was completed and announced in April 2024. This work highlighted the excellent potential of the project, which has a $139m NPV10, an IRR of 54% and a capital payback period of less than two years. The Company is actively investigating options for realising the value of the Governor Broome Project.