Joint venture partners Hancock Prospecting, Hawthorn Resources and Legacy Iron Ore have completed a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the Mt Bevan magnetite project.

Mt Bevan is located 250 kilometres (km) north of Kalgoorlie and 100km west of Leonora in WA. The project boasts a mineral resource estimate of 1291 million tonnes of magnetite resource at a grade of over 33 per cent iron.

The PFS places the midpoint net present value of the project at $1.67 billion with a lower range of $740 million and an upper range of $3.63 billion. The study also places capital investment for the project at $5 billion.

According to metallurgical testing, the project can deliver a product grade of greater than 70 per cent iron.

“The project is truly world-class with a grade of 70 per cent iron, making it attractive to end users,” Legacy chief executive officer Rakesh Gupta said.

“We look forward to the ongoing development of this project with our joint venture partners.”

The PFS incorporated over 9000m of exploration drilling, baseline environmental and heritage surveys, comprehensive metallurgical test work, the development of a 25-year mine plan, process and plant infrastructure design, and third-party engagement for transport logistics.

The joint venture partners have committed to further define, optimise and de-risk the project, including acquiring tenure to support water exploration and service corridors, continuing heritage and environmental surveys for approvals, and investigating other optimisation avenues.

“The completion of the Mt Bevan magnetite project PFS is a significant milestone for the joint venture and reflects the hard work of Hancock, Legacy Iron and Hawthorn Resources,” Hancock said.

“The technical outcomes from the work done are positive and further work is being undertaken to optimise the design and costs for supply of power, transport of iron ore product from mine site to a port for export of the product and identification of water sources required for processing and production of the concentrates.”