Akora Resources (AKO.AX) released the assay results from 18 shallow diamond drill holes completed on its Bekisopa iron ore project in Madagascar where it has identified iron ore mineralization over a strike length of in excess of 4 kilometers.
The initial drill results are very encouraging with for instance 6 meters containing 67% Fe and 15 meters containing 65% Fe which are both handsomely meeting the DSO requirements which generally requires an average grade of 56-58%. In fact, the encountered grades exceed the benchmark grade of 62% Fe which could indicate this type of DSO could command a price premium of a high single digit dollar amount per tonne. The company also mentions average silica grades between 2 and 4% (averaging 2.6% SiO2), and alumina grades between 1.5% and 3.7% (averaging 2.1%). Akora claims these levels of impurities are rather low and that’s correct as the benchmark pricing uses a maximum of 4% silica and 2.25% alumina. The 0.08% phosphorus is also within benchmark specs but the sulphur content of 0.03% is slightly exceeding the 0.02% used in the benchmark pricing.
A very encouraging start of the exploration activities at Bekisopa and the high iron grade and low silica and alumina grades could make this project viable as a Direct Shipping Ore deposit. Drilling has now been completed after wrapping up a 51 hole drill program for a total of just over 5,100 meters.
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