Black Canyon expands Flanagan Bore manganese project resource by 64% to 18Mt

Some Black Canyon (ASX:BCA) shareholders are demonstrating bullish interest in the company’s ongoing operations at the Flanagan Bore manganese project today as the company expands the JORC resource by 64% to a total of 18Mt of potentially recoverable metal. 

The estimate, broken down, sees a total of 171Mt of ore at an average manganese (Mn) grade of 10.3% Mn for a total of 18Mt of manganese. 

High confidence measured resource (read: that most likely to be extracted) sits at 100Mt of ore @ 10.4% Mn. 

The company has also grown the high grade end of its resource, which sees Mn cutoff at 13% concentration, to 40Mt or ore. That higher grade manganese is typically present at the ‘LR1’ and ‘FB3’ prospective targets at Flanagan Bore, which include outcropping from surface down to 20-40m depth. 

All in all, the resource growth adds an additional 7Mt of manganese to the company’s JORC. 

Feasibility study inbound 

Black Canyon is optimistic its newly updated resource “provides a robust foundation on which to establish potential Ore Reserves through detailed development.” 

Feasibility studies covering Flanagan Bore are also on the way for delivery in the near-to-mid-term future. 

Flanagan Bore is held under a JV by Black Canyon (51%) and Carawine Resources (ASX:CWX) at 49%. 

Currently, Black Canyon is seeking to earn up to a 75% interest through funding exploration on its own to the tune of $2.5m. The project is 400km southeast of Port Hedland in WA’s northern regions. 

Next 12 months transformational: Management 

“The next 12 months will be transformational as Black Canyon continues to execute multiple activities across a number of work fronts to deliver a robust manganese mine Feasibility Study,” Black Canyon chief Brendan Cummins said. 

“The deposits have continued to show a high level of continuity, with more than half of the updated MRE now within the highest confidence Measured category… another milestone achievement by the Company in less than 8 months since the last Mineral Resource.” 

Cummins noted a previous scoping study was now superseded by today’s resource growth, providing optimism towards the view of a multi-decade mine. 

Why Manganese? 

Black Canyon is targeting production of the end product manganese sulphate, which is used in lithium-ion batteries in large volumes, along with nickel and copper. 

Mn in sulphate form is a precursor for the manufacture of the batteries; towards that end, Black Canyon has been busy conducting metallurgical tests this year. 

Black Canyon is not the only player on the Aussie bourse looking at manganese in the EV market. 

ASX-listed Manganese player Euro Manganese (ASX:EMN) expects demand for high purity manganese will increase in coming years as battery performance, and demand for EV batteries, continues to grow.

By 2030, EMN expects 60% of all EV batteries produced will require high purity manganese, research supported by BloombergNEF. 

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