The Malawi-based miner's flagship deposit remains the world's largest natural rutile reserve
Sovereign Metals Ltd (ASX:SVM, OTCQX:SVMLF, AIM:SVML, FRA:SVM), the AIM-listed critical minerals company, has significantly upgraded the resource estimate for its Kasiya project in Malawi, sending shares up 9% to 44p.
The updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) shows measured and indicated contained rutile rising 32% to 16.1 million tonnes, covering 1.65 billion tonnes of ore graded at 0.98% rutile.
Total resources across all categories now stand at 2.1 billion tonnes, cementing Kasiya's position as the world's largest natural rutile deposit.
Rutile is a titanium-bearing mineral used in aerospace, defence and medical applications.
The upgrade is timed to support the project's definitive feasibility study (DFS), the detailed technical and financial assessment required before construction can begin.
For the first time, Kasiya has achieved a "measured" resource classification, the highest confidence category under the JORC mining code, covering at least the first six years of planned operations.
Frank Eagar, chief executive, said the result gave the company and its commercial partners "high confidence in the resource base underpinning our potential mine schedule."
The project also contains 20 million tonnes of graphite as a secondary resource.