MATILDA ZIRCON LTD - ASX: MZI

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Description

Matilda Zircon Limited is an ASX-listed resource company (ASX:MZI) focused on the development of mineral sands projects located on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory, a leucoxene deposit at Keysbrook in the South West of Western Australia and an expanding zircon operation in Indonesia.

Matilda is led by an experienced Board and management team, with proven track record in project development and specific expertise in the mineral sands and zircon industries. Matilda’s major shareholder is Stirling Resources Limited, which is a strong supporter of zircon and has strategic partnerships with the international commodity marketing group DCM DECOmetal.

Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory

The Tiwi Islands are located approximately 50km north of Darwin, a 25 minute air flight and consist of Melville and Bathurst Island. The Tiwi Island zircon project includes a complete 150tph wet plant and all supporting equipment and infrastructure. The project has historically produced 46,000 tonnes of zircon concentrate grading 50% zircon and shipped zircon concentrate to China in 2008.

In contrast to the traditional mineral sand companies which produce lower-value ilmenite and zircon as a by-product, the Tiwi Island project produces high-value zircon and rutile-rich concentrates. Previous and current exploration shows impressive zircon and rutile grades in the heavy mineral suite of a number of deposits.

Matilda has commenced mining at the Tiwi Island project with a target to produce 40,000 tonnes of zircon/ruitle concentrate. As part of its 2010 Mine Plan, Matilda has introduced a number of enhanced mning and processing methods which will double plant capacity and reduce operating costs. This includes the introduction of an in-pit mobile slurry unit and a pre-concentrator facility. Construction of the new slurry unit is complete. The unit will eliminate double handling through the ROM Pad, allowing more efficient and lower cost mining and processing at the Tiwi Project. Mining is undertaken by excavators and loaders, which will feed directly into the mobile slurry unit before being dumped directly into the Plant Concentrator circuit, eliminating the need for dump trucks to cart to the ROM Pad.

Kalimantan Zircon, Indonesia

Central Kalimantan is covered by a large sedimentary basin, the Barito Basin. This basin contains placer deposits of zircon and gold over a large area. Gold mining has been carried out in Kalimantan for centuries and is still being undertaken. The value of the contained zircon was not properly recognised until the last five years when mining started on a wide scale by artisan miners who sold zircon as concentrate into China. Most Kalimantan zircon is sold into the Chinese market with some sold into India and other Asian countries.

In 2007 Matilda commenced an exploration program in Central Kalimantan with the aim of establishing mining and processing operations. This exploration confirmed the prospectivity of Central Kalimantan for zircon mineralisation. In late 2007 Matilda was offered the opportunity to purchase a partly completed zircon processing plant at Sampit in Central Kalimantan. This plant was relatively low cost at USD$535,000 and gave Matilda a base in Kalimantan to develop its exploration program as well as having the potential to produce a modest cash flow from producing zircon from concentrates produced by the artisan miners. Matilda took the opportunity to purchase the plant and it commenced operation in February 2008.

The key to future continued success for Matilda in Kalimantan is to locate and develop mining operations that the Company owns together with processing concentrates. To this end Matilda has negotiated a Joint Venture with Indonesian partners. These partners will bring tenements to Matilda to explore and potentially mine as well as carrying out the important task of obtaining all necessary approvals and licences. Matilda will do what it does well i.e. exploration, mining, processing and marketing of zircon.

Matilda believes that with adequate access to explore and a JV partner who can obtain all approvals in a timely manner there is a good potential for Matilda to find a suitable zircon resource to establish a profitable mining and processing operation.

Keysbrook Leucoxene, Western Australia