Marmota Ltd (ASX: MEU) has completed 10 aircore drill holes in an 89-hole program to chase up its November discovery of shallow paleochannel-hosted heavy mineral sands grading up to 10.1pc titanium dioxide at Muckanippie in South Australia.
The new drilling will further test intriguing mineralisation at least 39 metres thick from surface, reported in four holes drilled as part of Marmota’s earlier 106-hole rare earths program that were re-assayed for titanium-rich sands.
The re-assays were prompted after a geological review by the company identified the east-west trending Mesozoic palaeochannel that runs for at least 28 kilometres through multiple Marmota tenements comprising the southeastern part of its holdings at Muckanippie and is up to 5 kilometres wide.
Marmota’s new geological interpretation was aided by the South Australian Geological Survey’s November publication of its reinterpretation of the ancient channel system.
About 10km of the 28km-long channel system is enclosed by the company’s western tenure and a further 18km lies within its eastern tenure, while the ground separating the two blocks of Marmota ground is held by Petratherm.
Petratherm has also reported thick, high-grade, titanium-rich palaeochannel-hosted heavy mineral sands (HMS) mineralisation in its ground, reporting a best intercept of 20m averaging 4.2pc titanium dioxide, including 4m assaying 9.1pc of the oxide.
Marmota’s decision to re-run its assays for titanium returned the effort and expense in spades, with the first hole hitting 28m at 10.1pc titanium dioxide, including 4m going 13.3pc while a second hole intercepted 36m assaying 6.2pc titanium dioxide, including 4m running 10.8pc.
The third hole nailed a 39m run assaying 4.6pc titanium dioxide and the fourth hole in the line jagged 24m at 7.5pc of the oxide, including 4m averaging 10.3pc.
Marmota announced just 10 days ago HM assays featuring bonanza grades in every discovery hole. Those assays confirm Marmota’s discovery at Muckanippie as a highly significant new heavy mineral sands discovery.
Marmota Chairman Dr Colin Rose
Rose said Marmota was progressing a major follow-up drill program “with full speed” to rapidly advance, grow and develop the titanium heavy mineral discovery.
The latest holes also tested a pronounced 1.5km by 750m total magnetic intensity anomaly identified within the paleochannel. An arcuate north-south line of about 200m-spaced holes covered the peaks of the anomaly and all four holes nailed good HMS thicknesses and high titanium dioxide grades.
The elevated magnetics signature in the channel could reflect an accumulation of thicker sands as a water-sorted, transported and deposited placer-style heavy mineral sands deposit.
The company sees the identification of the new palaeochannel as significant because it defines and also potentially enlarges the prospective areas for ancient buried river channels to host titanium-rich mineralisation.
The bends of the palaeochannel - such as could be inferred from the shape of the magnetic anomaly - are seen as highly prospective for the concentration of heavy minerals.
This is due to heavy minerals being preferentially sorted and deposited on the insides of drainage bends where water flow changes velocity, such as in a depression or at a bend.
A possible primary source of the heavy minerals may lie in nearby host rocks related to the local Muckanippie Complex, which includes layered igneous ultramafic, gabbroic and felsic anorthosite intrusive rocks that could represent one or more heavy mineral source points.
Marmota sees analogues between the local geological environment and renowned centres of world-class deposits such as South Africa’s Bushhveld Complex, which contains giant deposits of chromium, platinum, palladium and titanium.
If Marmota can tie together extensive thicknesses of high-grade titanium-rich mineralisation - especially if it can be shown to extend beyond the palaeochannel environment - it could be onto a real winner.
Proving up the resources could give the company a significant high-demand strategic commodity line from a remarkable South Australian project that has already delivered the high-grade Aurora Tank gold project, where work is ongoing.
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