The first batch of drilling results has been delivered from the Narryer JV tenure at the Muckanippie Titanium Project in South Australia, with Narryer Metals Ltd calling the results “outstanding”.
Muckanippie contains both 100%-owned Petratherm Ltd tenure and tenure currently owned by Narryer.
Tenure map of the Petratherm and Narryer JV Muckanippie Project Area with prospect names, geological targets and aircore drill collars.
“These are outstanding drill results from the Narryer JV tenure as the Rosewood Ti Discovery at Muckanippie now has a strike extent of up to 8 kilometres, confirming the potential for a significant heavy minerals deposit,” Narryer executive chairman Richard Bevan said.
“The mineralisation is shallow, occurring from surface in some drill holes, and the grade appears to improve in the most northern drill holes, which extends further into the JV tenure.
“It is also good news of the discovery of high levels of zirconium oxide along this northern extent. Zircon is a high-value commodity, which can provide a significant premium to a potential HM product.
“Narryer looks forward to further results in the coming weeks, including the ~50 drill holes at the Claypan and Nardoo prospects on the Narryer JV tenure.”
Open mineralisation
Results from 45 drill holes at the Rosewood prospect, which consisted of 11 holes over two fence lines of drilling 2 kilometres apart, confirm that titanium-rich heavy mineral sand (HMS) mineralisation extends across at least 15 square kilometres and is open in multiple directions.
Key intersections include:
- 24RW036 – 16 metres (m) at 12.1% heavy minerals (HM) from 14m, including 8m at 19.6% HM from 15m;
- 24RW038 – 14m at 8.5% HM from surface, including 6m at 13.0% from 5m;
- 24RW039 – 11m at 7.2% HM from surface, including 5m at 11.8% from 5m;
- 24RW031 – 19m at 9.0% HM from 5m, including 5m at 17.4% from 19m;
- 24RW041 – 9m at 4.5% HM from surface, including 1m at 28.9% from 4m;
- 24RW037 – 13m at 7.7% HM from 1m, including 5m at 13.3% from 7m and 6m at 12.0% from 16m, including 3m at 17.0% from 17m with a high level of zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂) in heavy mineral concentrate (model analysis underway); and
- 24RW035 – 5m at 17.8% HM from 7m, including 3m at 25.7% from 9m.
Mineralisation remains open to the north, west and east, with significant and thick high-grade intercepts encountered at the end of drill traverses, warranting follow-up extension drilling.
Examples of mineralisation extending beyond current drill lines include:
- 24RW038 (West) - 14m at 8.5% HM from surface.
- 24RW036 (North) - 16m at 12.1% HM from 14m. Historical drilling (Car series holes) suggests mineralisation extends at least 3 kilometres further north.
- 24RW043 (East) - 4m at 9.3% HM from 10m.
Drilling cross-section along the western drilling traverse in the Narryer JV Tenure.
Analysis to date indicates Rosewood HMS contains more than 95% valuable heavy minerals, primarily high-value titanium ores, including rutile product (high-titanium leucoxene and rutile) and pseudorutile.
Further results from other heavy mineral targets within the Muckanippie Project are expected in the next two weeks.
“These results confirm exceptional heavy mineral grade continuity and thickness over a very large area,” Petratherm CEO Peter Reid said.
“Encouraging thick, high-grade mineralisation occurs right up to the extent of current drilling and we look forward to step-out exploration drilling in the coming weeks, especially to the north, which has significant potential for additional mineralisation.
“We have now strengthened our confidence of Rosewood’s large-scale potential and as a result this next round of exploration drilling will include in parallel the collection of bulk heavy mineral samples to expedite initial trial mineral separation testing using standard ore processing techniques.
"This work will investigate ore recoveries and ore products for potential sale.”
Ongoing work
Ongoing work at Rosewood will focus on mineralogical and metallurgical assessments, utilising existing heavy mineral (HM) concentrates for benchtop and small-scale recovery investigations.
These studies will involve magnetic and electrostatic separation techniques, commonly used in HM mining operations, to determine the viability of producing titanium oxide products for further marketing and evaluation.
Further drilling is planned at Rosewood with two objectives: first, to test for extensions of the known HM mineralisation, and second, to collect bulk samples exceeding 500 kilograms for large-scale metallurgical testing. Drilling operations are expected to start in approximately four weeks.
About Narryer
Narryer is a critical minerals exploration company with projects in Australia and Canada.
In Australia, the company is exploring for nickel, copper, platinum group elements (PGE), titanium and rare earth elements (REE) across three key projects -Narryer, Rocky Gully and the Muckanippie Joint Venture (JV) in Western and South Australia.
In Canada, Narryer holds lithium-prospective assets in the Northwest Territories, Quebec and Ontario.