Cyclone (ASX:CLE) cracks Canadian magnetite metallurgy at Project Iron Bear

Cyclone Metals’ Quebecois pilot plant has produced a direct reduction concentrate of 71.3 per cent iron and 1.1% silica with a scant trace of deleterious elements from an Iron Bear magnetite flagship across the border in Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador province.

Producing a DR concentrate is essential to large-scale and high-quality green steel production and key for Cyclone’s strategy to show it off to potential clients and fund development.

Cyclone believes no competitor is even close to achieving this, and 68 kilograms of concentrate produced from the project’s lesser graded feed is now ready for demonstration to buyers to get a taste of a full mine life for Iron Bear.

Cyclone Metals Chief Executive Paul Berend said the first phase of pilot test work from Iron Bear had successfully confirmed its magnetite’s exceptional metallurgical properties.

“We were able to produce one of the highest quality magnetite concentrates in the world with very high yields in an industrial setting,” Berend said.

“We are now in a position to supply ultra-high-quality iron ore product samples to steel mills and trading houses, and then start offtake/JV discussions. These are exciting times.”

The larger sized pilot plant also produced blast furnace and reverse flotation concentrates grading at 69.8% and 68.3% respectively, with undesired elements presenting at extremely low levels in all products.

Now begins phase 2 of pilot work, and Cyclone has delivered another seven tonnes of sediment to its Corem operator to produce 800kg bulk samples of blast furnace grade and DR concentrate for pelletising test work.

With newly upgraded indicated and inferred mineral resources now standing at 16.6 billion tonnes at 29.3% total Fe and an even larger exploration target, Iron Bear would have a venerable mine life.

The project is already well connected to the same heavy haul rail and export operations used by nearby iron ore heavyweights, and Cyclone believes is confident it can soon join them as the industry’s first to produce without a tailings dam.

Read more on Cyclone’s iron outlook, sustainability, and how it was formed around the undervalued assets of a cannabis-crazed Toronto Stock Exchange: Iron ore demand growth looks inevitable

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