Sydney, Mar 16, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Olympia Resources (ASX: OLY) today announced it had signed access agreements to explore on three highly prospective zircon tenements in the mineral-rich Indonesian province of Kalimantan. The tenements are located in the Kasongan and Tumbangsamaba regions of central Kalimantan and cover a total area of 2,913 hectares.
In addition to exploration, Olympia has signed Heads of Agreements with Chinese customers to sell zircon concentrate produced by local miners in Indonesia. The customers, Zhangzhou Antai Zircon Industrial Development Co. Ltd and Zibo Qi-Culture Technical and Economic Development Co. Ltd, a state-owned enterprise (Zibo), have each agreed to purchase up to 50,000 tonnes of zircon per annum from Olympia over the next 10 years at world market prices.
The heavy mineral sands in Kalimantan contain a very high level of zircon. Typically the concentrates produced by local miners contain 75% to 80% zircon. The zircon is associated with ilmenite, rutile and gold with minor alumino silicates such as kyanite. The zircon is very clean with low iron and from work done to date can be classified as premium quality.
"The beauty of this project is that we will incur no upfront capital or mine production costs and expect to generate positive cash flow in May 2006. When we reach our stage one target of 35,000 tonnes per year of zircon concentrate, our annualised net cash flow should be around $AUD 5 million."
The first trial shipment of zircon concentrate is scheduled to leave from Indonesia for China in April 2006 with regular shipments planned from May 2006.
About MZI Resources Ltd
MZI Resources Ltd (ASX:MZI) is a mineral sands company focused on the high value minerals of zircon, rutile and leucoxene based in Perth, Western Australia. Its flagship operating asset is the Keysbrook Mineral Sands Project, located 70km south of Perth. At the Keysbrook mine, mineral sands are mined and processed to produce heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) which is processed into final products under a toll treating arrangement with Doral Mineral Sands Pty Ltd at the Picton Mineral Separation Plant (MSP) near Bunbury.
The Keysbrook mine hosts a world-class zircon / leucoxene ore body with total Ore Reserves equivalent to over 15 years of production at design output rates, and total Mineral Resources equivalent to over 30 years of production. Production commenced in late 2015, making the Keysbrook Project Australia’s first – and the world’s largest - primary producer of high value leucoxene.
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