Marmota Limited (ASX: MEU) has modified its follow-up air core drilling program at its new high-grade titanium-rich sands discovery at its Muckanippie project in South Australia to extend and increase the drillhole density along a full 4-kilometre channel.
The move follows positive results from an initial field evaluation of samples from the company’s westernmost drillhole that point to a likely extension of high-grade heavy mineral sands along the full length of the palaeochannel within the discovery tenement.
Marmota’s geology team panned samples from the westernmost follow-up drillhole that produced encouraging visual results of the quantities of heavy mineral sands, which could also be rich in titanium.
The indications are solely visual at this stage and aren’t a measure of the mineralisation nor their elemental content. Both will need to be accurately determined by laboratory analysis.
Marmota’s original 89-hole follow-up drilling program was designed to focus a higher concentration of drillholes around four discovery holes drilled along a single arcuate transect of the palaeochannel in the northeastern part of the discovery tenement.
The four discovery holes were drilled to between 34 metres and 39m depth and sampled at 4m intervals, delivering a best heavy mineral concentrate percentage in one hole of 27.8 per cent grading 6.9 per cent titanium dioxide in the end of hole sample.
The best individual 4m sample titanium dioxide grades in each hole ran 10.3pc, 6.1pc, 10.8pc and 13.3pc titanium dioxide.
The best hole, nearest the southern margins of the interpreted channel, maintained continuous elevated titanium dioxide content from surface to end of hole, with all but two sample intervals assaying better than 10.3pc up to 22.2pc heavy minerals and between 5pc and 13.3pc titanium dioxide.
The recently panned concentrates from the early westernmost follow-up drillhole point to likely continuity of heavy mineral sands along the full 4km extent of the palaeochannel in the northern part of Marmota’s discovery tenement.
They gave Marmota the confidence to deploy its follow-up drilling more strategically by spreading out its planned complement of holes to take in the full 4km stretch of the channel in the tenement.
The move will save Marmota significant drilling metreage to scout out its intriguing new mineral occurrence at a more open but still meaningful drill-spacing.
It will also lead Marmota towards a possible earlier option of exploring the westward extension of the channel into its adjacent exploration licence to the west.
Any major success could materially affect the company’s view of the scale of the potential new asset and the influence it could have on Marmota’s future exploration planning.
The company’s extensive tenure encloses about 28km of the interpreted prospective palaeochannel. This is divided into two parts, with about 10km of the channel lying within Marmota’s western suite of tenements and about 18km within its eastern suite.
An intervening 19km portion of the palaeochannel lies within ground held by ASX-listed critical mineral explorer Petratherm Ltd.
Petratherm last month announced results from 45 drill holes at its nearby Rosewood prospect at Muckanippie that confirmed the presence of titanium-rich heavy mineral sands mineralisation along a channel length of about 8km, which so far remain open to the north, east and west.
Petratherm is continuing its own mineralogical and metallurgical assessment that will include using existing heavy mineral concentrates to undertake benchtop and small-scale recovery investigations.
These will include magnetic and electrostatic separation of heavy mineral concentrates, similar to those used in existing mining operations, to determine which titanium oxide products can be produced for further marketing and evaluation.
The company plans to undertake more drilling at Rosewood to test for further extensions of the known heavy minerals mineralisation and to obtain bulk samples for large-scale metallurgical test work.
Marmota has completed drilling its modified pattern of 91 holes for a total of 3272m to an average depth of 36m and has submitted its samples to Adelaide for laboratory analysis.
The company expects initial titanium dioxide results from its 4m composites within about a month and expects this will provide an immediate overview of the extent of high-grade mineralisation across the palaeochannel within the drilled area.
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