The Iron Mountain project is located near Cedar City, Utah. The District was discovered in 1849 by Mormon Pioneers, and the iron deposits were mined almost continuously from 1851 to 1995, producing an estimated 88.2Mt. The new board of Palladon Ventures Ltd, the current owner, commissioned SRK to review the project and comment on its merits.
In the 1950s and 1960s, former owners drilled on site, but the core samples are no longer available. SRK worked with Palladon to design a drill program for Comstock-Mountain Lion deposit and adjacent stockpiles to verify the historic database and estimate a resource for a Preliminary Economic Assessment; the resource includes 40.35Mt at an average grade of 45% Fe. SRK concluded the high costs of off-mine freight and shipping clearly favored producing higher value products. The iron mineralogy of the orebodies is predominantly magnetite, which has certain value in downstream steelmaking. In addition, the project infrastructure is good.
SRK commissioned an assessment to examine both the US and export market potential. Currently, the US imports over 95% of its alternative iron units, while China’s demand continues to be strong. SRK concluded that the Iron Mountain project had merit and that there were opportunities for project optimisation. Meanwhile, Palladon is using SRK’s work in discussions with prospective investors and off-take partners.
