Marmota yields Bonanza-grade titanium at emerging SA discovery

Marmota Limited has unveiled a stunning set of results from its emerging Muckanippie titanium discovery in South Australia’s Gawler craton, confirming the project as a major new heavy mineral sands player with bonanza-grade concentrations that dwarf industry benchmarks.

The company’s 91-hole air core campaign has revealed extraordinary titanium-rich heavy mineral (HM) concentrations, with peak grades up to a staggering 63 per cent. Thick intercepts start at surface.

Marmota Limited has identified bonanza-grade, titanium-rich heavy mineral concentrations at its Muckanippie discovery in South Australia, following a 91-hole air core program.

Marmota believes the results validate the discovery’s high-grade and significantly expand its footprint to a sprawling 3.2 kilometre by 1.8km, with the potential for extensions in all directions.

The program’s standout intersections include an unheard of 37m at 45 per cent HM from just 2m depth, which featured a 5m section at a massive 56 per cent HM, a 34m hit running 19 per cent HM from 4m, including 1m at 50 per cent HM, and a 30m at 20 per cent HM from surface.

The results build on the company’s four discovery holes reported at the start of this year, which peaked at 28 per cent HM.

The company’s latest drill program doubles the project’s maximum grade to 63 per cent.

The mineralised zone is hosted within a 28km-long Mesozoic palaeochannel and currently spans the entire 3.2km width of Marmota’s Muckanippie tenement. High-grade HM concentrations of more than 20 per cent were recorded at both its eastern and western extremities.

Encouragingly, samples from Marmota’s adjoining tenement to the west have previously shown 100 per cent leucoxene - a high-value titanium mineral - hinting at a potential 9km-long mineralised system yet to be drill-tested.

Using low-cost air core drilling, Marmota will now look to quickly and cheaply move its discovery to a resource estimate. It seems HM grades in the company’s maiden resource will likely stand head and shoulders above its industry peers.

Compared to Australia’s leading mineral sands projects, such as Tronox’s Cooljarloo (1.6 per cent HM), Iluka’s Jacinth Ambrosia (4.9 per cent HM) and Cataby (5.5 per cent HM), Muckanippie’s grades of up to 63 per cent HM are in a league of their own.

Preliminary metallurgical results at Muckanippie revealed an average 79 per cent valuable heavy mineral content in the company’s original four holes, reaching up to 90 per cent in some samples.

Importantly, the valuable titanium polymorph minerals, rutile, pseudorutile and anatase were dominant, while there were ultra-low levels of the radioactive nasties uranium and thorium, promising a simplified processing sheet.

Marmota’s Muckanippe project is strategically located 120km southwest of Coober Pedy and benefits from direct access to the Adelaide-Darwin and Adelaide-Perth rail lines, slashing logistics costs. The surface-level mineralisation eliminates the need for any overburden removal and offers a low-cost extraction advantage over deeper competing deposits.

The discovery’s significance is amplified by its correlation to a regional palaeochannel, which also hosts Petratherm’s adjacent Muckanippie titanium discovery. Marmota controls about 28km of this highly prospective channel, including 10km to the west and 18km to the east of Petratherm, positioning it as a dominant player in what is shaping up as Australia’s next mineral sands district.

As the newly minted ‘critical mineral’ titanium continues to experience a supply squeeze, Marmota’s high-grade low-impurity deposit looks poised to capitalise.

With the mineralised zone open in all directions and the potential for a 9km-long system, Marmota is gearing up to accelerate exploration and resource definition at Muckanippie, while directing the majority of its funds to its flagship gold developments 40km north.

As the company continues to unlock the scale and grade of this extraordinary discovery, Muckanippie and its neighbour could form the beginnings of a globally significant titanium district in the mighty Gawler Craton.

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