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- Sovereign Metals (SVM) has received high-grade rutile from its first air-core drilling program from the Bua Channel in Malawi
- A total of 57 shallow holes and 54 deeper holes were completed at Bua in late 2019
- Results grading more than one per cent rutile were intersected
- The remaining air-core holes are currently being processed and results are expected in the coming weeks
- Sovereign’s share price is steady today with shares last trading for 13.5 cents apiece
Sovereign Metals (SVM) has received high-grade rutile from first air-core drilling program from the Bua Channel.
Drilling has confirmed Bua Channel as a high-grade, rutile dominant deposit within the emerging Malawi Rutile Province.
Sovereign believes that it has identified a globally significant, strategic rutile province across its Malawi holding.
Rutile is a titanium oxide mineral that can be crushed into a white powder and used as a pigment in paints.
The Malawi Rutile Province features two confirmed, discrete rutile mineralisation styles both of which are compliant with conventional processing.
To date, known rutile mineralisation is unconstrained across Sovereign’s ground position which offers extensive exploration upside.
The company is targeting definition of a substantial resource in 2020 that can support a long-life, large scale rutile operation.
“This classic sand-hosted, placer-style rutile mineralisation at the Bua Channel has now been extended along strike and continues to support our belief that we have identified a potentially globally significant, strategic rutile province with multiple mineralisation styles,” Managing Director Dr Julian Stephens commented.
“We are currently waiting with anticipation for drilling results from our new Kasiya saprolite-hosted rutile discovery and further Bua Channel results,” he added.
In 2019 a total of 57 shallow Hans-auger holes, for 364 metres, and 54 deeper air-core holes, for 473 metres, were drilled at Bua Channel.
These results, amongst 17 deeper results already received, have returned excellent grades of rutile and high-quality ilmenite (titanium iron-oxide mineral) over the southern extent of Bua.
On February 3, 2020, Sovereign received results for the first eight shallow hand-auger holes.
Results include five metres at 1.02 per cent rutile, 1.7 per cent ilmenite and 0.09 per cent zircon from three metres, and three metres at 0.96 per cent rutile, 1.6 per cent ilmenite and 0.08 per cent zircon from four metres.
The remaining air-core holes are currently being processed and results are expected to be reported on in the coming weeks.
Sovereign’s share price is steady today with shares last trading for 13.5 cents apiece in a $51.60 million market cap.
