Andromeda Metals Limited (ASX: ADN) announced that a 2,300 metre aircore drilling program has commenced at the Great White Deposit, part of the Great White Kaolin Project on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, which is a joint venture between ADN (75%) and Minotaur Exploration Limited (25%).
The company said that the drilling will focus on the high purity kaolin (non-halloysite type) Ultra Bright Domain of the Great White Deposit which has shown exceptional results for coating and polymer applications.
ADN said that drilling will provide additional material for testing, and better define and potentially extend mineralisation to the north of the deposit. The company said that the drilling will also follow up on a newly identified zone of ultra-high bright, high-grade halloysite located immediately south of the proposed Great White Pit.
Great White Kaolin Project
The Great White Kaolin Project is a joint venture with Minotaur Exploration Ltd (ASX: MEP) on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.
High-quality halloysite-kaolin occurrences exist extensively across the Great White Project area making this a region of global significance for the mineral and capable of supporting a considerable long-life mining operation, should final feasibility studies determine the project to be commercially positive.
Drilling at Great White Deposit
The company announced that it has commenced a 2,300 metre aircore drilling program at the Great White Deposit within the Great White Kaolin JV, focusing on the high purity kaolin (non-halloysite type) Ultra Bright Domain of the deposit.
The company said that this program is aimed to provide additional material for ongoing testing and to better define the Ultra Bright Domain. AND said that the drilling would also follow up on a newly identified zone of ultra-high bright, high-grade halloysite immediately south of the proposed Great White Pit.
Hole CW20AC007 had intercepted from 8m, 20m @ 35.75% halloysite with an ISO Brightness 84.4%. Hole CW20AC007 included some of the highest halloysite grade intercepts recorded at the Great White Deposit as demonstrated by: from 8m, 4m @ 60.1% halloysite with an ISO Brightness of 87.0%.
Ideal for specialist coatings and polymers
Testing undertaken by Andromeda in Europe had shown that the Ultra Bright Domain is ideally suited to high-value markets in specialist coatings and polymers. This is because Ultra Bright Domain consists of extremely high purity kaolinite with ultra-high brightness (ISO Brightness >84%) and with low halloysite levels and extremely low Fe2O3%.
Ceramic fired brightness testing
In the tests, Andromeda said that the ISO Brightness and the particle size distributions of the high purity, ultra-bright refined products at 70% and 90% passing 2μm from the Ultra Bright Domain are exceptional.
ADN had carried out ceramic fired brightness testing to assess potential product blending with halloysite-kaolin to improve fired brightness. The company reported that the fired brightness values from the Ultra Bright Domain were all over 100 (off-scale) which reflects the minimal impurities present.
The company noted that all processed samples were close to the theoretical maximum for aluminium oxide for kaolinite (39.5%Al2O3) and with virtually no colouring oxides or alkalis which indicates good potential to produce High Purity Alumina (HPA).
Better feed for HPA production
The Great White halloysite-kaolin was already proven to be a premium feed for HPA production. The company said that this ultra-high purity kaolin is potentially an even better feed for HPA production, which is currently being evaluated.
Significant composite assay results from the high purity kaolinite portion of the Great White Kaolin deposit are as shown below.
Image Source: Andromeda Metals Limited
