Athena Resources Limited announced completion of the infill resource drilling program to acquire data sufficient to upgrade the FE1 2004 inferred JORC compliant, magnetite, Mineral Resource Estimate, (MRE) to a 2012 JORC compliant Indicated Resource. Completion of the infill drilling program is a strategic development towards the Company's FE1 Project Feasibility Study (PFS), within 2022. The completion of drilling and preliminary data acquisition is a key component in the development of the Byro magnetite resource with many milestones already completed. The infill program supports major steps including grant of mining leases, native title mining agreement, thorough metallurgy repeated in Australia and China, process engineering design, Main Roads WA approved transport corridor, hydrology studies, advanced environmental studies and exploration drilling of supporting satellite ore bodies. The program was designed by the Company in consultation with Entech Pty Ltd. who have been appointed to undertake the Mineral Resource Estimation (MRE). The program was designed to satisfy the identified data gaps
required to lift the resource from an inferred to indicated resource including required geotechnical data for pit
optimization for the PFS. The infill program consisted of 11 RC pre-collars followed by 11 diamond tails for solid core recovery and 3
standalone RC holes. Several holes were drilled twinning historic holes. Data from the twinned holes will be used
to fulfill data gaps required by the 2012 JORC Code and define variability within the ore body while extending the
modelled block to the west and to a depth of 200m. Infilling compliments 31 existing holes to bring the total drilling within the resource to 45 holes for 6,929.25m. Drilling
also completes the required grid spacing of 100m line spacing with hole positions 50m apart on each line.
Magnetite ore intersections throughout the campaign were largely as predicted with high purity magnetite commonly
as coarse grain granulite and at times presenting as semi-massive to matrix ore as seen below.
From completed drilling and geological logging, the Company is delighted to
confirm the magnetite ore drilled within the FE1 Resource is of the same quality
and genesis to that identified from previous drilling, metallurgy, and ore
characterisation. The image (left) is a section of PQ size whole core at 154m down hole in hole
AHRC0115D. The magnetite is a silver color and consists of pure coarse grains
of magnetite with no inclusions. The darker mineral is biotite in silicate, all
together a simple assemblage of minerals.
Magnetic susceptibility data has been captured using a KT10 Magnetic
susceptibility meter through the ore intersections with many intervals such as
that shown in Figure 1, reaching the maximum reading of 200010-3, standard
units correlating well with data from previous drilling.
Whole core graphically confirms previous identification of the rock type as
"Upper Granulite Facies Magnetite Gneiss". This means the ore has been
purified by nature through intense geological processes. The classification sets
the Byro ore apart from lower facies and high impurity ores such as Banded
Iron Formations (BIF). This classification is fundamental in understanding the
level of purity and unique quality of the Byro ore type and why it is ideal for
supply into the Green Steel Industry. Core cutting and sample preparation is underway to complete whole rock assay and DTR determinations for the
mineral resource estimate.