LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Cadence Minerals updated the market on progress made by Macarthur Minerals on the mining and haulage components of the feasibility study for the Lake Giles Iron Project on Friday.
The AIM-traded firm said Macarthur had been working with Orelogy Mining Consultants and Pells Sullivan Meynink (PSM) on the mine design and road haulage aspects of the project.

It said a request for budget pricing had been submitted to contract mining and road haulage operators, to establish contractor pricing for operations.

A geotechnical drilling programme had been defined for the Moonshine and Moonshine North pits, it added, to establish geotechnical parameters for the final pit designs.

"Macarthur is pleased to be working with Orelogy and PSM on this important component of the feasibility study for the magnetite mining operations at Lake Giles," said Macarthur Minerals chief executive officer Andrew Bruton.

"An extensive body of work is being undertaken on the mine design and geotechnical design and securing contractor pricing for mining and road haulage costs is important to ensure that mining operations can be optimised.

"This budget pricing information will help inform the next phase of work that Orelogy and PSM will be undertaking."

Bruton said the Macarthur feasibility study team was continuing to make "significant" progress, and was examining options for mine design that would maximise the value of the project for the benefit of shareholders.

"You can see from the preliminary design diagram that the mine pits and scale of the operation is huge.

"The area of the pits stretch over six kilometres and we are only currently focused on the first 20-plus years of mine and plant life.

"The scale of a billion-tonne magnetite resource in such close proximity to existing rail and port infrastructure is very unique globally."

Cadence holds around 1% of the issued equity interest in Macarthur, which is an Australian mining exploration company focused primarily on iron ore, nickel, lithium and gold in the state of Western Australia.

It also has a lithium project in Nevada.

At 1412 BST, shares in Cadence Minerals were up 1.69% at 24p.

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