Petmin has invested a further $1.5M in Iron Bird Resources, owner of the Mt Ginka iron ore exploration licence in northern Liberia.
Iron Bird is now fully funded for the next stage of work, which focuses on geological mapping, trenching, drilling and metallurgical test work.
The work is focused on obtaining representative samples of the ore body to confirm the earlier grab samples which ranged from 33%-54% Mag Fe and to demonstrate that the ore body is both extractable and economic. Future drilling will give an indication of the size of the deposit.
This concludes phase two of Petmin's investment under the joint venture agreement with Hummingbird.
It takes Petmin's total investment in Iron Bird to US$2M, and under the terms of the JV, Hummingbird and Petmin now each hold 50% in Iron Bird.
It was previously announced that a continuous magnetic unit, interpreted as an iron formation, extended 20km along strike with widths of up to 250m and depths of 1000m.
This was discovered from the results of a recently flown aeromagnetic survey over the Mount Ginka license.
The prospect lies 20km south of the Mount Nimba ridge, a historic major iron ore mine reportedly producing between 12Mt and 24Mt/y of high grade direct shipping ore between 1964 and 1989, which has been re-opened by ArcelorMittal.
Approximately 15km to the west of the Mount Ginka ridge lies the railway built to transport the Mount Nimba iron ore to the deep water port of Buchanan.