Petratherm’s bonanza assays confirm major heavy mineral sands discovery

Petratherm reports bonanza heavy mineral sands discovery in South Australia
Project has titanium rich HMS – a critical mineral for AU, US and EU
Assays from a further 45 drill holes are pending

Special Report: Petratherm says assays from maiden drilling at the Rosewood prospect at its Muckanippie project in South Australia have returned bonanza heavy mineral sands concentrations.

The project is an early-stage greenfields project but Petratherm (ASX:PTR) has already uncovered significant concentrations of titanium rich HMS over large areas.

Notable assay results from first 5 step out drill holes along a single 2km north-south traverse include:

22m at 19.1% HM from 8m, including 4m at 27.9% HM from 9m and including 1m at 39.7% HM from 11m
17m at 9.7% HM from 6m, including 4m at 22.2% HM from 8m
11m at 10.0% HM from 6m, including 6m at 15.4% HM from 7m
20m at 8.9% HM from 4m, including 8m at 12.1% HM from 5m and 3m at 21.3% HM from 21m; and
10m at 6.8% HM from 3m, including 4m at 11.7% HM from 3m.

So far, preliminary visual analysis suggests the high value minerals leucoxene and rutile are present, which is consistent with recently reported historical results located 1km to the east.

Bonanza grades confirm scale potential

The project is also highly prospective for other critical minerals including platinum group elements and vanadium, with the HMS accumulation underlaid by a high titanium bearing basement.

That means there appears to be a local source of the mineralisation in the HMS placer, rather than being transported from elsewhere.

Titanium is on the critical minerals list for Australia, the US and EU and has uses in electric vehicles, battery storage, wind technology, pigments, and as an alloy in steel and superalloys.

And high titanium mineral content has also been confirmed in the lab, with the company confident of more encouraging results from the remaining 45 holes to be assayed.

“The maiden Petratherm drill results are outstanding and confirm Rosewood is a highly significant new HMS discovery within the company’s broader Muckanippie project,” Petratherm (ASX:PTR) CEO Peter Reid said.

“Recent mineral analysis of the HM fraction from historical drill holes 1 kilometre east of today’s drill results indicated favourable concentrations of high value leucoxene and rutile.

“The bonanza HM grades and thicknesses reported are highly significant and a major step towards both confirming the potential scale of mineralisation and de-risking the viability of the project.”

Looking forwards

“Assay results from a further 45 drill holes from Rosewood are expected in the coming weeks along with detailed mineral analysis of the HM assemblage,” Reid said.

“We look forward to providing results as they come to hand.”

Assays from the Claypan and Nardoo prospects are also pending, with PTR looking to complete HM metallurgical testwork along with further infill and exploration drilling in the new year.

PTR stock ran as high as 80% up on Wednesday morning, and was trading at a $106m market cap, some 600% higher over the past month.

This article was developed in collaboration with Petratherm, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.