Petratherm shares jump 60% on strong metallurgical results at Muckanippie

Petratherm Ltd (ASX:PTR) has confirmed high-grade Heavy Minerals (HM) with significant mineralogy are present at its Rosewood prospect – part of the wider Muckanippie Titanium Project in South Australia, including titanium dioxide (TiO2) grading up to 65%.

The company has carried out a successful program of metallurgical test work – specifically a trial HM separation test – on samples from historical drilling at Rosewood, with lab results showing that from the HM tested, titanium represented a significant fraction.

Further analysis of the HM fraction through X-Ray Diffraction showed between 19 and 21% rutile, between four and 7% anatase and between 68 and 70% pseudo rutile.

The sampling for this test work was taken from composite samples from wide spaced drill holes over 2.5 kilometres, and they returned heavy mineral HM concentrated at 12.0% and 12.5 % from shallow depths.

But Petratherm has also focused its attention away from the historically drilled samples, conducting its own drilling campaign at Rosewood across an area of eight kilometres by two kilometres.

From this campaign, 90 samples have been taken from a representative drill section trending over 1.8 kilometres, with these selected for fast-tracking HM separation analysis with results expected in three to four weeks.

CEO Peter Reid said he saw great potential for the prospect, based on what had been revealed in these tests.

“The initial metallurgical results from historic drilling at the Rosewood prospect are outstanding and beyond our expectations,” he said.

“As the Muckanippie project evolves, it continues to surprise with emerging potential to be a significant source of high value titanium minerals and transformational for the company.”

Petratherm shares jumped after the news was released, and by 13:02 AEDT, they were trading at 8 cents – a rise of 60% since the market opened.

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