Strandline Resources Limited announced that it is preparing to deliver first ore to the Wet Concentration Plant (WCP) at its 100%-owned Coburn mineral sands project in Western Australia. This follows substantial completion of pre-production mining of the open pits (pre-stripping), with dozer mining units being moved into position, and rapid progress in commissioning of the WCP systems. Overall project construction is now more than 90% complete. Final construction verification and staged commissioning of the WCP and associated services (including power, water, communications) is advancing well and currently running several weeks ahead of schedule.

The enhanced detailed mine schedule, incorporating the latest infill `grade control' drilling and mine optimisation work, has mining starting from surface in the initial open pits. As previously reported, mining more ore closer to surface over the first two years of the mine plan reduces the average strip ratio from 0.7 to 0.5 (less waste), which potentially improves mining efficiencies compared to assumptions contained within the DFS (June 2020). Further, the pre-production mining activities completed over the last few months has confirmed the favourable unconsolidated, free flowing nature of the Coburn deposit, and extremely low slimes content.

While commissioning of the WCP continues to gain momentum, construction teams are shifting focus to finalising the downstream processing plant (the MSP) and remaining support infrastructure. Once the MSP is ready, HMC will then be transported to the MSP for further processing to produce Coburn's premium-quality final products, including chloride ilmenite, rutile, premium zircon and zircon concentrate. With Coburn construction reaching peak activity and personnel numbers on site, the Company continues to focus on managing the various risk factors associated with development of the project.

This includes HSE risks, potential impacts of COVID-19, inclement weather, contractor performance, commissioning and contractual claims and disputes. The capital expenditure (Capex) forecast to complete the project, including an assessment of contractual claims received to date, is regularly evaluated by the Company's technical, financial and legal experts. The project forecast remains in line with the overall Capex budget.