McLaren Minerals (ASX:MML) will soon be drill testing the recently acquired Barossa project in South Australia, after completing a positive initial review of the asset.
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The company acquired the mineral sands project from Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU) in mid-December. Since then, a data review has identified mineral assemblages that include approximately 16% zircon, around 60% ilmenite, and as much as two percent rutile within valuable heavy minerals (VHM).
The average grades across the prospect areas measured approximately 4.6% heavy mineral (HM). MD, Simon Finnis, said the initial review found that there are clear opportunities for extensional and follow-up drilling at Barossa.
“The acquisition of this project area from Iluka has materially expanded the opportunity for McLaren in the Eucla Basin, a proven hunting ground for economic mineral sands systems,” he told shareholders today.
“We were attracted to this asset initially by the strategic rationale of increasing our project pathway in good mining jurisdictions and proven geological settings. An additional benefit was that Barossa offered a zircon-rich setting that adds real value to the mineral suite; these high-grades point to further opportunities.”
McLaren has started planning for follow-up exploration programs in CY26.
In the eastern Eucla Basin, north-west of Ceduna, the acquired Barossa tenements contain the Kalahari, Mojave, and Gobi prospects. Up to 583 holes have been drilled at the project to date, with numerous high-grade returns.
“While we are totally committed to advancing the McLaren titanium project, projects of this calibre don’t often become available, so it was an opportunity too good to pass up. McLaren is a project with a mineral suite dominated by sulphate quality ilmenite, so we have added this advanced project to increase our project exposure and, in due course, also broaden our product offering,” Mr Finnis said.
Barossa lies just 90km south-east of Iluka’s tier-one Jacinth-Ambrosia mine. It forms part of the highly prospective Ooldea and Barton paleo shoreline corridors – the same geological settings that host multiple world-class deposits across the Eastern Eucla Basin.
MML is steady at 2.1cps today.
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