MELBOURNE - Mining company Ivanhoe Australia says it has found a molybdenum-rhenium deposit that has the potential to be worth as much as A$6.4 billion ($8 billion) at its Merlin project in northwest Queensland.
The company said there was a mineral resource estimate of 13 million tonnes of the world's highest-grade molybdenum-rhenium deposit.
The deposit is estimated to contain 110,000 tonnes of molybdenum, 180,000kg of rhenium, 30,000 tonnes of copper and 57,000kg of silver.
"This is extraordinary. You find these things once every 30 or 40 years," company chief Peter Reeve said.
He said the company hoped to begin producing in about two years.
Rhenium is produced when molybdenum sulfide is smelted.
The metal is used in aircraft turbines, rocket thrusters and heating elements.
The world's largest producer of rhenium is Chile, which in 2007 produced 28 tonnes of the metal.
- AAP
Ivanhoe in $8 billion find
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