Muckanippie kicks off titanium drilling

Petratherm (PTR) (ASX: PTR) has commenced drilling at its Muckanippie titanium project in South Australia.

The 4,000m drill program will assess at a regional scale the Rosewood and Claypan Prospect titanium rich heavy mineral sands (HMS) mineralisation.

Drilling is also planned over high titanium-vanadium bearing source rock horizons for primary vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM) style mineralisation.

PTR Chief executive Peter Redi says the company is extremely pleased to have drilling now underway.

“The critical minerals, titanium and vanadium, have been identified over large areas and in a variety of target forms which is testament to the fertility of the Muckanippie area,” he said.

“This maiden drill program by Petratherm will assist in determining the extent of mineralisation of the prospect areas and the potential for future economic mineral resources.

“We look forward to providing further updates on the drilling program.”

The air core drilling program will comprise of wide spaced, 1km drill traverses over prospective mineral sand areas with holes spaced at about 200m along lines and include some closer infill drilling in zones of interest.

The previously reported shallow HMS mineralisation, starts from near surface to approximately 30m depth, and maximum hole depths are expected to range between 30-40m.

Testing of VTM prospective areas such as at Claypan is likely to involve slightly deeper drilling to the top of fresh basement rock ranging between 40-70m depth.

Targeting of potential VTM horizons is more discrete and hole spacing along drill lines will typically be at 50m. Mineral assays will be despatched for heavy mineral calculations, mineral testing and geochemistry in stages during the drilling, with reporting of initial assay results scheduled to commence from late November.