Estrella Resources is steadily shifting its Ira Miri project in Timor-Leste from exploration concept to production reality, successfully intersecting the targeted manganese horizon as extraction activities gather pace.
The company is working towards delivering up to 30,000t of high-grade manganese ore as a market sample, a milestone that would represent not only a significant step for the project but also Timor-Leste’s first minerals export since the adoption of its new mining code.
Notably, a recently inked agreement with the national mineral authority, Autoridade Nacional dos Minerais, I.P., gives Estrella the green light to mine bulk samples and ready them for sale, unlocking what is almost certainly the first taste of mining royalty revenue the government has seen in modern times.
Earth movers have now struck the distinctive red-brown clay horizon overlying the manganese mineralisation, validating Estrella’s exploration model developed from drilling completed in 2025.
The company says the mineralised horizon sits close to the surface, lining up neatly with earlier drilling results. The manganese is hosted within a sequence of clay units containing layered manganese oxides, providing favourable conditions for simple extraction and grade control.
Significantly, additional manganese-bearing material has also been identified outside the initial sample extraction area, pointing to broader mineralisation potential beyond the current pit design.
With the weather on its side and steady progress at site, Estrella has kicked off its production ramp-up plan. Additional heavy equipment has been mobilised, lighting towers installed to allow night shifts and the pit is now operating with a sizeable fleet, including excavators, dump trucks, bulldozers and graders.
Two mine supervisors are overseeing excavation activities, while Estrella’s geos have started detailed grade control sampling. This work is focused on ore identification and quality categorisation to optimise the extraction sequence and generate a formal product specification sheet for potential buyers. At the same time, Estrella says it has stepped up discussions with several potential international end-users.
Initial manganese ore has already been stockpiled at the pithead, ahead of haulage. A new road network has been installed to improve access to the stockpile, with material set to be transported about 17km to the former Lautem airstrip, next to a decommissioned fish-processing facility. From there, ore will be loaded onto barges and shipped offshore for transfer to bulk carriers.
Estrella Resources managing director Chris Daws said: “With the successful intersection of the manganese horizon and the identification of further mineralisation within a clay unit, the Ira Miri project continues to march towards the production of an initial market sample. The manganese market sample of up to 30,000 tonnes is significant not just in terms of project development but also for the country of Timor-Leste, representing the first minerals export following the adoption of the new Mining Code.”
Beyond the Ira Miri manganese project, Estrella has also been busy working up its promising Werumata limestone prospect. Late last year, the company wrapped up a 3717-metre drilling blitz across 42 reverse circulation and diamond holes, all aimed at outlining what could be a monster, high-purity limestone resource. Early conceptual numbers floating around suggest an exploration target in the order of 500 million tonnes - enough rock to potentially supply Timor-Leste’s domestic needs for generations.
The drill bit has already delivered some eye-catching thicknesses. At the Baucau prospect, limestone units came in at up to 87 metres thick, while Batu Putih returned chalk horizons up to 38 metres. Stack the key carbonate-rich units together and the combined package blows out to as much as 112 metres, with an average thickness of about 57 metres across the project area.
With drilling now complete, all eyes are on the lab. Assays from the limestone samples are currently in the pipeline, with results expected shortly, giving the market its first real look at the purity and industrial potential of Werumata’s thick carbonate sequences.
As manganese is becoming more widely recognised as a key input for steelmaking and battery cathode chemistry, Estrella’s push towards first production looks set to position Ira Miri as both a country-building project and a timely new entrant into the global critical-minerals supply chain.
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