According to the company, its joint venture partner, PT. Indo Imperial Resources Tambang, has been successfully operating the project on a small scale for the last two years, and is teaming up with Elray Resources to take production to the next level.

Elray Resources said it intends to conduct a comprehensive exploration program and independent feasibility study on the project. This will largely comprise drilling/test pitting programs, trace element analysis, metallurgical testing for plant specification and design, and financial modeling. By-product opportunities, including for gold, illmenite and rutile will be investigated.

“With increasing demand for high quality zircon, particularly in China, this project has the potential to very successful,” said Barry Lucas, executive chairman of Elray Resources. “The project requires low capital expenditure to increase production and we fully expect the use of new more efficient recovery technologies to enable rapid revenue stream development and attractive returns.”