Tao Commodities (ASX:TAO) confirms thick, high-grade mineral sands at Titan

• Tao Commodities (TAO) has confirmed thick, high-grade mineralisation from phase one drilling at its Titan Project in Tennessee
• Pleasingly, all holes encountered elevated heavy mineral sand (HMS) mineralisation over the Upper Shore Zone and the Lower Shore Zone
• Results include grades of up to 8.09 and 8.16 per cent total heavy minerals and all holes yielded grades above one per cent
• Tao is currently waiting on assays from the recently completed phase two program and is planning a third phase to begin this quarter
• The drilling will support a maiden resource estimate for the project and is aimed to be released in quarter two
• Tao’s shares are trading in the grey at 33 cents

Tao Commodities (TAO) has confirmed thick, high-grade mineralisation from phase one drilling at its wholly-owned Titan Project in Tennessee.

Pleasingly, all sonic core holes encountered elevated heavy mineral sand (HMS) mineralisation.

Within the thick envelope of mineralisation, the company identified two zones of high-grade mineralisation. These zones have been dubbed the ‘Upper Shore Zone’ (USZ) and the ‘Lower Shore Zone’ (LSZ).

The mineralised zone ranged from 12.2 metres to 48.8 metres with all results above one per cent total heavy minerals (THM).

Assays from drilling include; 47.2 metres at 3.69 per cent THM, including 10.7 metres at 8.09 per cent THM and 10.7 metres at 5.47 per cent THM; 35.1 metres at 3.04 per cent THM, including 10.7 metres at 8.16 per cent THM; and 32 metres at 3.12 per cent THM, including 10.7 metres at 5.64 per cent THM.

“We are very encouraged by these initial results and plan to aggressively delineate this potentially world-scale HMS deposit which has exceptional characteristics including simple geology, high-grade intersections, high-value assemblage, located in an infrastructure rich, low-cost region in the U.S. with customers on our doorstep,” Executive Director Taso Arima said.

Tao also conducted a preliminary analysis of valuable heavy minerals (VHM). Initial results have shown a favourable range of 42 to 76 per cent VHM across the selected drill holes.

This indicates a highly valuable potential product suite of the VHM portion which consists of 16.9 per cent rutile, 14.5 per cent zircon, leucoxene, 46 per cent other high-titanium minerals and 1.8 per cent monazite.

Tao Commodities is now waiting on assays from phase two drilling, which was completed in December last year.

In the meantime, it’s planning a follow-up phase three program for the current quarter and this will aim to delineate a maiden resource estimate in the second quarter.

TAO’s shares are trading in the grey at 33 cents at 12:25 pm AEDT.