Astra Resources has announced that it has received a favorable report for its Philippine iron sands project from the Cagayan River Construction & Development Corporation.
The report says that the iron ore potential for the dredging area under the control of the Cagayan River Construction & Development Corporation is good.
The area in the Cagayan River Delta is partly inland and extensively offshore. It covers the northern shelf of the Cagayan Province in the north eastern part of Luzon. The Cagayan River Construction & Development Corporation is a joint venture in this proposed project where the prime dredged material contains magnetite, an iron bearing mineral.
The Chief Executive Officer of Astra Resources, Jaydeep Biswas said that large offshore deposits of magnetite had accumulated from the discharge of the Cagayan River and other rivers that empty through the sea, with much of the deposits dating back through many geological eras. He also said that the highly magnetic nature of magnetite means it can be recovered with relative ease using magnetic separators, making it an economically attractive mineral to recover.
Managing Director of Astra Resources, Silvana De Cianni said that the inferred estimate of magnetite-rich sand in surrounding areas using data from a previous offshore exploration program was about 12.98 billion tonnes, while magnetite-rich concentrate was about 4 billion tonnes.