Black Canyon (ASX: BCA) continues to rapidly advance its high-grade Wandanya manganese and iron discovery in Western Australia, completing a drilling program and heritage survey prior to the start of the region’s wet season.
Drilling provided approximately 2,000 kilograms of core material which will be composited by grade, mineralogy, texture and mineralisation type for metallurgical testing, including benchtop-scale heavy liquid separation and larger-scale dense media separation.
Previous heavy liquid separation test work on composite reverse circulation drill-chip samples from Wandanya’s W2 showed the company could efficiently beneficiate an average 30% manganese to achieve a 45% product grade.
The widespread heritage survey – the third of its kind this year – covered Wandanya’s 3 kilometre-long mineralised footprint to allow for future close-spaced infill and step-out extension drilling, with a similar survey at Wandanya South scheduled for the first quarter of the new year.
Balfour Manganese Field
Black Canyon owns more than 2,200 square kilometres of acreage in the underexplored Balfour manganese field, with Wandanya representing a new exploration model on the eastern margin of the broader Oakover Basin in WA’s eastern Pilbara.
The company has defined a global mineral resource of 315 million tonnes at 10.5% manganese across the field, comprising 100Mt at 10.4% in the Measured category, 173Mt at 10.2% Indicated, and 42Mt at 11.9% Inferred.
Black Canyon’s upcoming schedule of works includes mobilisation of an exploration camp and a reverse circulation drill rig in March for the start of a 15,000 metre campaign at Wandanya, along with a 5,000m maiden campaign at Wandanya South.
Drilling will target infill and step-out opportunities to support resource growth and strengthen the project’s development potential.
Metallurgical Understanding
Managing director Brendan Cummins said the company was working to advance the metallurgical understanding of Wandanya’s mineralisation.
“The outcropping to shallow mineralisation ensures that our planned drill metres are cost-efficient and, with the majority of planned hole depths being less than 20m, we can rapidly cover the target and obtain good grade and geological knowledge,” he said.
“Mapping and sampling have demonstrated the overall mineralising system is up to 9km long based on outcropping iron enrichment and we have only drill tested 30% of it, so there is good potential to further expand the manganese-iron footprint and unlock the full potential of this unique deposit.”
Manganese has attractive long-term fundamentals due to it being an essential component in the manufacturing of alloys for the steel industry, as well as a critical mineral in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries.
