Iltani Resources Limited (ASX: ILT) announced on 17 July 2026 the successful completion of first-pass ore sorting test work at its Orient Silver-Indium Project in Herberton, North Queensland. The silver and base metals explorer, focused on identifying critical minerals for a low-emission future and holding a portfolio of advanced exploration projects in Queensland and Tasmania, reported that TOMRA X-ray Transmission (XRT) technology successfully upgraded both high-grade and low-grade samples. The initial tests demonstrated the project’s mineralisation is amenable to ore sorting, yielding significant grade improvements for silver, indium, lead, and zinc while rejecting a substantial portion of waste material.
The test work involved screening 6-25 mm fractions from high-grade and low-grade reverse circulation (RC) chip samples. For the high-grade sample, ore sorting achieved a 58% mass rejection and an average upgrade factor of 2.1 times. This resulted in silver grades increasing from 130 g/t to 265 g/t, indium from 199 g/t to 427 g/t, lead from 1.8% to 3.6%, and zinc from 4.3% to 9.1%. Even more notably, the low-grade sample demonstrated a 96% mass rejection with an impressive average upgrade factor of 13.2 times. Silver in this sample soared from 26 g/t to 325 g/t, indium from 27 g/t to 437 g/t, lead from 0.6% to 7.3%, and zinc from 0.8% to 9.3%.
Iltani’s Managing Director, Donald Garner, highlighted that these results confirm the viability of ore sorting at Orient, attributing the success to the strong density contrast between the sulphide mineralisation and the siliceous host rock, along with the coarse distribution of sulphides. The company anticipates that this technology has the potential to significantly reduce processing costs by rejecting barren host rock before milling, thereby decreasing energy consumption, tailings storage requirements, and overall operating expenses, while maintaining metal units. Iltani is now planning a seven-hole PQ diamond drilling program to gather samples for the next phase of comprehensive bulk sorting test work.
