Formerly known as Rum Jungle Resources, Verdant said it had targeted the shallow central northern part of its Ammaroo project to lift part of its inferred resource to an indicated status, enabling it to carry out some mine planning work.

The company more than doubled the indicated mineral resource tonnage to 165 million tonnes at 15.5% phosphorous pentoxide, at a 10% cut-off, up from the 80Mt at 15.3% phosphorous pentoxide announced in December 2014.

At the same time, the portion of the indicated resource with low iron had almost tripled, from 33Mt to 90Mt, expanding the area Verdant may target to avoid a metal it said could be potentially damaging to the project.

The indicated and measured resource, at a 10% cut-off, is now 301Mt at 15.5% phosphorous pentoxide, up from 215Mt at 15.4% phosphorous pentoxide, while the indicated resource is 72Mt at 19% phosphorous pentoxide, at a 15% cut-off. 

The overall estimated project resource was substantially unchanged, at 1.141 billion tonnes at 14% phosphorous pentoxide and 6.5% iron oxide, the company said. 

The upgrades came after a 2016 drill campaign that saw 201 reverse circulation drill holes and 29 diamond holes drilled, with historic drilling data also used in evaluation of the upgrade.

An environmental approvals process is also underway at Ammaroo, with Verdant carrying out geotechnical evaluation of a mine, processing plant and tailings storage areas while also confirming the quality and availability of groundwater during the six months to December 2016.

Verdant is targeting the delivery of a BFS by the end of this year, and aims to submit its planned environmental impact statement by August.

Last week, Ammaroo reached a major milestone after the NT government granted it major project status, which could fast-track approvals.

The company is fully funded through to BFS and approvals with $A9.5 million cash at bank at the end of the December quarter.

Shares in Verdant were down by 2.4% to 4.1c in morning trade, valuing the company at $39.5 million.

Verdant was trading at 3.6c in mid-February.