Dundas IImenite

• One recommendation of the Pre-Feasibility Study for the Dundas Ilmenite Project (‘PFS 2019’) was that further drilling should be carried out at Dundas to improve levels of confidence in the Mineral Resource Estimate provided for Dundas in 2019 (‘MRE 2019’) and to enable the PFS 2019 to be brought to Bankable Feasibility Study standard.
• The revised final Mineral Resource Estimate 2023 (‘MRE 2023’) for the mineral sands deposit at Dundas, prepared for Dundas Titanium A/S by Palaris Europe Ltd., has been received and extensively reviewed by the Dundas Project Study Team and the Company.
• Palaris provided advice and supervision during the planning, and execution of the drilling campaign on the western part of the ‘Moriusaq’ heavy mineral sands deposit at Dundas (‘Moriusaq West’) carried out during the summer of 2022. This was the first available seasonal site access window post COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 & 2019 and after the granting of the Exploitation License from the Government of Greenland for the Project in December 2020.
• Additional drilling at the ‘Moriusaq East’, ‘Iterlak East’ and ‘Iterlak West’ deposits was not possible during the 2022 summer access window because of time-constraints.
• Sample preparation work was subsequently carried out at the GEO Laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark with further sample preparation and assay work was carried out at the NAGROM laboratory in Perth, Australia. Rigorous QAQC protocols were implemented by Palaris to validate the integrity of reported data across the entire process.
• The results from the 2022 drilling campaign on the Moriusaq West deposit did unexpectedly not correlate well with the historical drilling results. This created uncertainty regarding the extrapolation of the results to the eastern part of the resource at Moriusaq East, Iterlak West and Iterlak East. Consequently, Palaris was only able, based on the results from the 2022 drilling campaign, to remodel the Moriusaq West part of the MRE 2019. Additional drilling would, according to Palaris, be required at the Moriusaq East, Iterlak West and Iterlak East deposits before an updated MRE could be produced for these parts of the overall Dundas resource.
• The work carried out by Palaris has concluded that the JORC Compliant Measured and Indicated Resource categories in the MRE 2023 for the Moriusaq West part of the overall resource deposit now stands at 29.7 million tonnes at an in situ TiO2 grade of 1.99%, whereas previously the MRE 2019 for the same part of the deposit had been 59.3Mt at a grade of 3.26% in situ TiO2.
• The revised mining, processing and infrastructure design concepts and project implementation plans for the Project, discussed above, represent a solid realisable and de-risked solution for the Project. The associated capital and operating cost estimates and project revenue calculations are being documented as part of the Interim Assessment Report. Many of the implementation concepts and cost estimates developed as part of the recent studies for Dundas are directly applicable to other projects in the Bluejay portfolio in Greenland.
• In addition to the work described above, extensive mineralogical and metallurgical testwork on the Ilmenite from Dundas, carried out by MinSol Engineering Pty Ltd in Perth has confirmed the consistent Ilmenite mineralogy and processing characteristics across the entire deposit. The low level of deleterious elements in the final Ilmenite product would make the Dundas Ilmenite an ideal blending material for the global pigment plant feedstock market. This has been verified through market discussions and through the Master Distribution Partner on the Project.
• In conclusion, despite all of the work carried out over the last 18 months to improve and de-risk the project development concepts, prior to the MRE 2023 becoming available, the downgrade in tonnage and grade of the partial resource inventory provided by the MRE 2023 led the Bluejay Board and management to make a prompt conclusion that the Dundas Ilmenite Project does not present a viable commercial development opportunity for Bluejay alone.
• It has consequently been concluded that it is not in the interests of the Company and its shareholders to progress the Dundas Project as a sole developer. The Company will therefore not be proceeding with any further cash commitments to the Project whilst it considers strategic and commercial alternatives.
• The Company has now commenced the process of investigating these alternatives, which may include partnership, disposal or a combination thereof. The revised concept and design for Dundas is significant for discussions related to these alternatives.
• It should be noted that no additional work has been carried out on other onshore and offshore mineral sand resource targets both within and adjacent to the current Dundas license areas as well as additional regional targets in the Thule Mineral Sand province Marine offshore exploration work by the Company within its Exploration License MEL2015-08 has earlier outlined a large potential for a mineral sand resource target in the shallow marine environment along the coast of the Dundas area. These targets still represent realistic upside potential for the Project, but would only be further evaluated by Bluejay as part of a future partnership.
• 80 Mile will continue its focus on developing the Company’s strong portfolio of base and battery metals projects across Greenland and Finland, as outlined in its new strategy, as well as advancing discussions with strategic partners, which are proceeding with the expectation to conclude at least one of these in Q4 2023.

• In 2019, an Indicated and Inferred JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate was provided to the Company for the Dundas Ilmenite Project. The MRE 2019 included the Moriusaq (Moriusaq West and Moriusaq East), Iterlak East and Iterlak West deposits.
• Informed by the MRE 2019, Bluejay published the PFS 2019. As part of this PFS 2019, a JORC Compliant Ore Reserve of 67.1Mt with a mean grade of 3.45% TiO2 for the Project was provided to the Company.
• In December 2020, the Company was granted the Exploitation Licence for the Dundas Ilmenite Project for 30 years by the Government of Greenland. This grant also included an approved Environmental Impact Assessment and a Social Impact Assessment, as well as an Impact Benefit Agreement executed between the Municipality of North-West Greenland (Avannaata Kommunia), the Government of Greenland and Dundas Titanium A/S.
• One recommendation of PFS 2019 was that further drilling should be carried out at Dundas to improve levels of confidence in the MRE and to enable the PFS 2019 to be brought to Bankable Feasibility Study standard. This drilling campaign was concluded in the summer of 2022. This was the first available seasonal site access window post COVID-19 restrictions and after the granting of the Exploitation License for the Project.
• In addition, over the past 18 months, the designs and concepts proposed for Dundas as presented in PFS 2019 were also re-examined by Bluejay’s own appointed Project Study Team of subject expert consultants. Alternative designs and concepts have been developed by that team which have significantly reduced the risks associated with constructing and operating a project of this nature in the remote and challenging environment at Dundas.

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2019 Mineral Resource Estimate

1.     The effective date of the Mineral Resource is 8^th May 2019;

2.     The numbers are presented at a 0.0% in-situ TiO₂ cut-off grade reflecting the fact that the mining scenario ultimately adopted by the Company may or may involve selective mining;

3.     "THM" and "HM" mean Total Heavy Minerals and Heavy Minerals respectively;

4.     HM have been separated from a -2 mm +63 µm size fraction using heavy liquid separation at a density of 2.95 g/cm³;

5.     Mineralogical assessments indicate that ilmenite is the only mineral of value in the assemblage.  The remainder of the heavy mineral suite is dominated by pyroxene and amphibole;

6.     % TiO₂ in-situ assumes that all recoverable TiO₂ is in the HM component of the -2 mm +63 µm size fraction;

7.     % Ilmenite In-situ assumes that all TiO₂ is within ilmenite and that the ilmenite contains 47.65% TiO₂, based on historical exploration data.

Read 11th July 2024 RNS Update

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Read 29th May 2019 RNS Update