Located in Minas Gerais, the iron ore & phosphate mining powerhouse of Brazil, 350km from the state capital, Belo Horizonte.
10 Mineral Concessions totalling 152 km2 covering 70km of the NE trending Tiros sedimentary sequence.
The Tiros Titanium and Rare Earth project is located in Minas Gerais, one of the most infrastructurally developed states of Brazil, 350 km from Belo Horizonte, the state capital. It has the highest railway and deep-water port density in the country.
The area has excellent infrastructure with a tar road and a 500 kV powerline crossing the areas. There is a railroad at 60 km to the project which is located in a mining jurisdiction that understands multi-generational, industrial-scale mining projects.
The Tiros Titanium and Rare Earth project is located within the Capacete Formation, which was formed from the erosion and deposition of the volcaniclastic rocks of the Alkaline province of Alto Paranaiba. The Tiros licenses cover the thickest portions of the prospective formation and the areas with the greatest exploration potential.
The dominant lithologies in the licence are the granites of the Novo Mundo suite. This suite is compartmentalised into the upper and lower units and represents an intrusive body in rocks of the Xingu Complex with dimensions of approximately 12 km by 5 km, elongated E-W. This orientation coincides with the direction of the main ductile shear zones and regional lineaments that affect the region. The main facies of the Novo Mundo granites consist of an equigranular, leucocratic, non-magnetic syenogranite with an oriented fabric.
The Capacete Formation which hosts the Tiros Trend contains the high-grade TiO2-bearing mineral known as Anatase. Results from the laboratory SGS-Geosol, which used samples from 21 Core and RAC drillholes totalling 288 samples, defined the mineralized bed using a TiO2 cut-off grade of 6%. Within this bed, TiO2 grades averaged 13.4% and Rare Earth Oxide averaged 0.4% TREO. High-grade intervals, with more than 20% TiO2 and 1% TREO, up to 4.8m thick, were identified in five holes.
Approximately 24% of the content of Rare Earth Elements within the Tiros Trend is made by Neodymium, Praseodymium, and Dysprosium.
Resouro is aiming to focus on technological research on the property, with the selection of a metallurgical laboratory in Brazil for Titanium and Rare Earth concentration. Resouro’s team has commenced an initial work program consisting of building and verifying the database of historic data, preparing two 100 kg composite samples from historic drilling, and developing metallurgical testwork flowsheets. An Auger drilling program utilising the Auger drills and an aircore drilling program to produce NI 43-101 compliant resource data have additionally been planned. The company has also initiated steps to appoint a UK-based metallurgical laboratory for specialist TiO2 and REE testwork.
Using the results received and interpreted from the initial work program, Resouro is planning an Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental and Social Governance programs, initial conceptual strip-mining planning studies, and mine rehabilitation studies. The Company also plans to further assess the infrastructure and initial capital and operating cost assessment, while segmenting and analysing the REE and TiO2 offtake market.
There has been historical exploration work undertaken at the Tiros property, including 1,033m of drilling from 21 holes within the concessions and preliminary metallurgical studies on the Titanium beneficiation. Águia Metais had started exploration in 2010 for phosphate at the region, focusing on the Capacete Formation. In 2013, Vicenza Mineração acquired the areas from Águia and changed the focus to titanium. Iluka, the largest producer of TiO2 feedstock in the world, then entered into a Joint Venture agreement with Vicenza to evaluate the Capacete target in 2016.
Historical data for Tiros consists of GPR Profiles – subsurface imagery, aerial geophysical Magnetic and Gamma Surveys, Remote Sensing Studies, geochemical databasing of 3000 soils/chips/rocks, mineralogy studies, weathering profile characterization, and verification and re-assaying of the available core/drilling material.
