Drilling at Petratherm Limited’s Muckanippie titanium project in South Australia has revealed the potential for a large-scale “world class” mine.
Maiden exploration at the site’s Rosewood prospect returned assays with promising results, including 22m at 19.1 per cent heavy mineral grade from eight metres.
The drilling has confirmed mineralisation continues over at least 15km2 and is open in three directions.
Petratherm has declared the site to have the potential to become a world-class titanium asset.
“These results confirm exceptional heavy mineral grade continuity and thickness over a very large area,” Petratherm chief executive officer Peter Reid said.
“Encouraging thick, high-grade mineralisation occurs right up to the extents of current drilling and we look forward to step out exploration drilling in the coming weeks, especially to the north, which has significant potential for additional mineralisation.”
Petratherm first discovered high-grade titanium-rich heavy mineral sand at Muckanippie last September, with titanium ores averaging more than 95 per cent valuable heavy mineral content.
“We have now strengthened our confidence of Rosewood’s large-scale potential and as a result this next round of exploration drilling will include in parallel the collection of bulk heavy mineral sample to expedite initial trial mineral separation testing using standard ore processing techniques,” Reid said.
“This work will investigate ore recoveries and ore products for potential sale.”
Work will continue at Rosewood on mineralogical and metallurgical assessment, which will include using existing heavy mineral concentrates to undertake benchtop and small-scale recovery investigations.
These will include magnetic and electrostatic separation of heavy mineral concentrates, similar to those used in existing mining operations, to determine which titanium oxides products can be produced for further marketing and evaluation.
Further afield on the Muckanippie project, heavy mineral drilling results from exploration of saprolite zones (weathered basement reduced to clays) over areas of primary titanium-bearing rocks are expected within the next few weeks.
