Bryah is keen to secure the mine because it believes it can develop a multi-year mining operation to support increasing demand for manganese in steel production and lithium-based batteries.

 

Bryah initially planned to focus on copper-gold, but quickly realised the manganese opportunity as it became obvious the grades were higher than had been believed.

 

It has identified several new high-grade manganese prospects at Black Hill, Black Caviar and Devils Hill on its own 100%-owned ground that it wants to drill over the next few months, but it believes the adjoining Horseshoe South mine, and the 154sq.km of associated leases offer a pathway to fast-track a small-scale mining operation

 

Horseshoe South was the largest manganese operation in the Bryah Basin, producing some one million tonnes of manganese ore since the 1940s. Almost half of that was produced by Mineral Resources, which operated the mine between 2008 and 2011.

 

There is still some 215,000cu.m of stockpiled coarse ore and fines at the mine that has reacted well to ore sorting testing. 

 

The Perth-based explorer now is keen to accelerate surveying, sampling and metallurgical testwork of the stockpiles to establish opportunity to upgrade to a saleable product.

 

Byrah managing director Neil Marston said Horseshoe South was an opportunity to generate low-risk cashflow from a granted mining lease that would rapidly enhance its capacity to exploit any new manganese discoveries across its entire Horseshoe Range holdings.

 

Initial work phase suggests the stockpiled ore can be upgraded to produce a saleable product of around 34%, and detailed will begin this week to confirm that. 

 

Site access will also allow it to drill areas where high grade rock chips have been collected with near-term drilling.

 

At the mine surface sampling recorded assays up to 44.3%, an area east of the mine saw assays between 21.8% and 48.8%, and in the adjoining exploration licence the best assay results recorded were 42.7% in two locations, with most samples above 30%.

 

An area north of the Horseshoe North mine has good exploration potential as exposures of manganese were identified and sampled over several hundred metres down slope from the top of the Horseshoe Range ridgeline, Bryah said recently.

 

The company has a year to exercise its option for the mining lease paying Peak $150,000 cash and $150,000 in shares. It has a separate option with perennial Midwest iron ore hopeful Austsino Resources for manganese rights over the nearby E52/1557, E52/1860 and M52/1068 it can trigger with $20,000 cash and $20,000 in shares within 12 months. 

 

Byrah originally targeted the region for its copper-gold potential when it listed last year, and is moving ahead with RC drilling to test the Jupiter and Mars prospects in its flagship Aquarius project where airborne and ground electromagnetic surveys have identified conductive anomalies.

 

The Bryah Basin leases over some 720sq.km around Westgold Resources' Fortnum gold mine, Superior Gold's emerging Hermes deposit and the closed Horseshoe Lights copper-gold mine. The western boundary of its landholding also borders Auris Minerals' Woodger and Forrest prospects, which have returned encouraging copper and gold intersections in recent drilling.

 

Bryah shares last traded at 13c, capitalising the company at $7.3 million.