Cyclone Metals Limited (ASX: CLE) (Cyclone or the Company) is pleased to announce that Iron Bear completes pilot pellet production run.
HIGHLIGHTS
Iron Bear Direct Reduction (DR) pellets achieve world class specifications, grading 67.5% Fe, 1.6% SiO2, 0.12% MgO, 0.65% CaO and ultra-low deleterious elementsIron Bear DR Pellets have excellent physical properties (CCS 438-486 kg/pellet)Iron Bear DR Pellets demonstrated world class reduction and metallisation properties (Linder 1.0, R180 metallisation 99.1%)Pelletising pilot test work successfully completed, and the company is now starting small scale industrial production:-18 tons of run of mine sediment collected and ready for processing in the Iron Bear pilot plant located at COREM in Quebec City-Iron Bear DR concentrate grading 71% Fe and 1.1% silica-Iron Bear DR pellets and Iron Bear BF1 pelletsIron Bear plans to start shipping bulk samples of DR pellets and other products to potential off take clients in the Middle East and Europe by Q3 2025 with the objective of establishing commercial off take agreements4
Paul Berend, CEO of Cyclone Metals, commented:
‘We have successfully produced Direct Reduction Pellets. This is a major milestone for the Iron Bear project. Our DR pellets demonstrated excellent physical and metallisation properties, and we are on track to start shipping bulk samples to potential off take Clients as early as Q2 2025. Direct Reduction pellets are a key enabler to low carbon steel production and sell at a high premium to the 62% Fe benchmark. This premium is currently ~ 63.5 USD/t2. The industry standard pelletising conversion cost is ~ 15 USD/t which implies a typical additional cash profit of ~ 48.5 USD/t3 for DR pellets versus benchmark 62% Fe iron ore”
About The Iron Bear Project
The Iron Bear Project consists of ten licenses totalling 7,275 ha on 291 graticular Mineral Claims which are 100% owned by Cyclone Metals Ltd.
IRON BEAR PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
1. Asset located in Canada, less than 25km from an open access heavy haul railway connected to an open access iron ore export port
2. World class 100% owned Iron ore Mineral Resource of 16.6 billion tonnes @ 29.3 Fe% (Inferred 14.51 billion tonnes and Indicated 2.15 billion tonnes, reported in accordance with the guidelines of the 2012 JORC code) (refer to ASX announcement 11th April 2024)
3. Pilot Plant production of high-quality DR grade concentrate1 grading 71.3% Fe and 1.1% SiO2 with high yields due to an exceptional low impurity ore body (refer to ASX announcement 23rd April 2024)
4. Rapid project development plan with bulk samples of DR and BF concentrates available for steel mill clients in Q1 2025 and DR and BF pellets in Q2 2025
5. Cyclone’s development plan is focused on establishing an asset-based JV with a Tier 1 miner or steel producer, in order to bring the Iron Bear project to Decision to Mine and provide the CAPEX
IRON BEAR ACCESS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
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