The Perth-headquartered company said latest drilling had almost doubled the size of the resource from 12.7 million tones of concentrate to 20.8Mt. The expanded resource contains an estimated 11.31Mt of ilmenite, 1.26Mt of rutile and 1.62Mt of zircon.

The Douglas project is now the biggest mineral sands field in the emerging Murray Basin region of Australia and stands to be a development of global significance.

Basin Minerals' managing director, Dr Brad Farrell, said previously inferred resources for Bondi, Bondi East and Echo had all been upgraded by infill drilling.

Likewise, the Acapulco strandlines (which had been categorized as emerging resources in February) had been upgraded to an inferred status.

“There exists considerable potential in all deposits for additional resources along and across strike besides inclusion of an as yet classification of the resources at Chetwynd,” Dr Farrell said.

Modelling of the resources has shown that most of the strandlines are likely to have low stripping ratios.

Metallurgical testwork has also been carried out on bulk samples from all deposits confirming they all have excellent product quality and high recovery rates.

“Our current pre-feasibility study is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2000 and this is assessing the viability of a major long-life mining operation on the Douglas project,” Dr Farrell said.

“On current favourable results it is expected that a final feasibility study will commence in the December quarter of 2000.”