McLaren Minerals Completes Drilling at Western Australia Titanium Project

McLaren Minerals has completed its largest drilling campaign at the McLaren titanium project 150 kilometres east of Norseman in Western Australia. The program delivered heavy mineral grades reaching 34.6 per cent and tested areas outside the existing resource boundary.

The campaign comprised 663 holes for 11,568 metres. It included infill drilling to raise confidence in the current 529 million tonne mineral resource, step-out drilling on southwest and southeast extensions, and variography drilling for resource modelling.

The existing JORC-compliant resource grades 4.5 per cent heavy minerals and contains 23.7 million tonnes of in-situ heavy mineral sands. The drilling also supported future ore reserve estimates and feasibility work. The company tested the Eastern Shoreline target, an interpreted palaeo-shoreline extending about 12 kilometres east of the main resource.

Twenty widely spaced holes were drilled across the target, with assays still pending.

Earlier results from the program included 22 metres grading 7.62 per cent heavy minerals from surface in one hole, with a peak 1-metre interval of 30.65 per cent, and 24 metres grading 8.01 per cent heavy minerals in another hole, with a peak interval of 34.61 per cent.

The managing director stated that infill drilling will lead to an updated resource and a maiden mining reserve, and noted strong continuity in the southwest and the emergence of the southeast extension as an additional target. With field work complete, the company will now focus on assay compilation, geological modelling, mineral resource upgrade studies, and metallurgical test work.