Petratherm backed by seasoned resources execs

Mineral sands heavyweight Rob Sennitt has joined Petratherm’s board as an executive director.

Bullish: Rob Sennitt joins something of a dream team on the Petratherm board. Pic: Getty Images

Special Report: South Australia-focused mineral sands explorer Petratherm has strengthened its board with resources and financial markets experience with the addition of former Alicanto Minerals MD Rob Sennitt to the role of executive director. 

• Petratherm appoints Rob Sennitt to role of executive director 
• Sennitt’s experience involves investment banking and many years in the resources industry 
• Follow up extensional drilling results at Muckanippie will be delivered in the coming weeks 

Sennitt brings more than 25 years of investment banking experience to Petratherm (ASX:PTR), having held roles at heavyweight firms including JP Morgan, Macquarie Capital and RBC Capital Markets. 

His track record in corporate finance is complemented by his involvement in the resources sector, having held key positions at Mineral Deposits, Appian Capital Advisory and Alicanto Minerals. 

He became managing director and CEO of Mineral Deposits (MDL) in 2015 when the company owned 50% of the TiZir JV consisting of the Grande Côte mineral sands operations in Senegal, along with titanium slag and iron smelting operations in Norway.

During his tenure, Sennitt was responsible for the improvement and optimisation of operations, restructure and refinancing of the JV as well driving MDL’s strategy, culminating in the recapitalisation of the company before its acquisition by French multinational mining giant Eramet SA. 

In the wake of the MDL acquisition, he took on the role of senior adviser to Appian Capital Advisory with responsibility for sourcing investments and portfolio management in the mining sector throughout the Australasian region. 

Most recently, he was managing director of Alicanto Minerals (ASX:AQI), a $25m market cap explorer chasing copper-gold-zinc-silver-lead deposits in Sweden’s Berglagen region. 

PTR’s titanium discovery 

Petratherm, traditionally a copper-gold explorer, identified a major titanium-heavy mineral sands zone in September last year after investigating a substantial intrusion at its Muckanippie project in South Australia’s northern Gawler Craton.

The company ranked among 2024’s top performers, surging in December after impressive maiden drill results at the Rosewood prospect, where the first five step-out holes delivered intercepts of up to 22m at 19.1% HM from 8m, including 4m at 27.9% HM from 9m.

The news sparked a share price surge from just a few cents to the 25c it is today, catapulting the company’s market cap to $90 million.

Petratherm believes it has a long way to go yet with recent Phase 2 drilling testing for extensions of Rosewood mineralisation traced as far as 1.6km north. 

Mineralogy results from the Rosewood East area have indicated HM sands with >95% Valuable Heavy Mineral content, composed primarily of high value titanium minerals – rutile product (high-titanium leucoxene and rutile) and pseudorutile. 

The latest sizing analysis results show the heavy minerals are coarse-grained and well-suited to high recovery rates using standard gravity spiral processing.

Resources veterans 

The company’s leadership team brings decades of resources industry experience to the table and is headed up by CEO Peter Reid.

His credentials include being part of the original Minotaur Resources team that discovered the Prominent Hill copper-gold deposit, once owned by Oz Minerals and now in the hands of BHP. 

Reid was the founding CEO of PTR following its ASX listing in 2004 and was an executive board member of Lawson Gold for four years. 

Other key members of PTR’s team include non-executive director Simon Taylor, whose experience spans a wide range of commodities and jurisdictions across Africa, South and North America, Europe and China. 

In his most recent positions, he was managing director of Oklo Resources when it was acquired by B2Gold Corp in 2022 and was a non-executive director of Chesser Resources prior to its takeover by Fortuna Mining Corp in September 2023. 

‘Highly regarded track record’

Reid said the company is delighted Sennitt is joining the Petratherm board. 

“He has extensive mineral sands experience with a highly regarded track record for value realisation that is well suited to assist in guiding the company forward,” he said. 

“Rob joins Petratherm at an exciting time and we look forward to his contribution, as we focus on advancing the potentially world-class titanium-rich HMS Muckanippie project towards commercialisation.” 

Listen: Peter Reid chats with Barry FitzGerald

In a previous instalment of the Explorers Podcast, host Barry FitzGerald spoke with PTR CEO Peter Reid about recent drilling results confirming the potential for a world-class titanium project at Muckanippie in South Australia.

What else is happening? 

Follow-up extensional drilling was completed in April and drill results are expected in the coming weeks. 

In addition to exploration drilling, an approximate 1-tonne bulk sample has been collected for metallurgical test work. 

These results will inform separation processing and produce initial mineral sample products. 

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.

Originally published as Petratherm backed by seasoned resources execs