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ReGIonAL RoUnDUp

Sovereign’s rutile distraction

turns big

overeign Metals Ltd has received first complete a maiden inferred resource for and deposits and we have really only
Sconfirmation of its new exploration the deposit. scratched the surface,” he said.
strategy after delivering a set of high- “We are targeting a maiden resource in Sovereign’s intentions for rapid devel-
grade rutile intercepts from its Kasiya Q3 this year,” Stephens said. opment are clear. The company has initi-
prospect in Malawi. It is an ambitious schedule but the na- ated metallurgical testwork on the Kasiya
ASX-listed Sovereign has been active ture of the Kasiya mineralisation made it material which indicated the saprolite
in the East African country for several achievable, according to Stephens. mineralisation could produce a premium
years but until the start of this year was “It says something specific about this product.
focused on graphite development at its deposit, it is a little bit of a different style – “Very early in the discovery process we
Malingunde project. However, in Janu- flat-lying and widespread so the drill den- decided to do some metallurgical work
ary, the company chose to follow up on sity is probably a bit wider spaced than because you don’t want to find a huge
rutile occurrences it had identified on the what you would have to do in a normal deposit and then discover the metallurgy
graphite ground 12 months previously. mineral sands deposit,” he said. doesn’t work,” Stephens said. “It showed
The initial outcomes of the auger drill- While early days, Sovereign is already we get a good recovered grade of rutile
ing programme have proved exceptional making comparisons to world-class rutile and met the specs for premium grade ru-
with the Kasiya prospect returning a deposits on the continent, such as Iluka tile in the market in terms of the chemical
string of high-grade intercepts including Resources Ltd’s Sierra Rutile operation. composition and the size of the product.”
7m @ 1.27% rutile, 5m @ 1.43%, 15m @ “When you start looking at the size of The metallurgical work showed a rutile
1.12%, 11m @ 1.33% and 13m @ 1.32%, the footprint at Kasiya alone 5.5km by product containing 96% TiO2, no critical
all from surface. 2.5km and open in most directions, it impurities and favourable grain size distri-
Sovereign managing director Julian looks like it has potential for hundreds of bution, making it suitable for major rutile
Stephens told Paydirt TV the results millions of tonnes of mineral sands mate- end-use markets.
were among the most exciting mineral rial and looks, in terms of size and grade, While mineral sands prices have been
sands intercepts he had seen. as something which could eventually rival inconsistent in recent years, rutile has
“The fact the drill holes were over a very Sierra Rutile,” Stephens said. proven robust, thanks to a growing supply/
large area and contained world-class As well as the saprolite-hosted rutile demand gap, fetching around $US1,200/t
grades of rutile makes us think we’ve po- at Kasiya, Sovereign has also confirmed compared to $US200/t for chloride ilmen-
tentially found a world-class rutile deposit placer sand rutile mineralisation on its ite and $US180/t for sulphate ilmenite.
in Malawi,” he said. Bua Channel prospect. Stephens said “Rutile is the premium titanium miner-
The mineralised zone at Kasiya has exploration work would continue on both al,” Stephens said. “The market is in defi-
been defined over a 5.5km strike with as the company looked to scope out an cit and there’s isn’t enough natural rutile
widths at surface of more than 2.5km. entire rutile province. deposits in the world. Some of them have
Mineralisation is open along strike in both “During the graphite exploration pro- been mined out or producing at lower
directions and to the south-east. cess we started a bit of rutile work as grades.”
Sovereign finished drilling in late May well and in fact it appears to be an entire The success of the Kasiya drilling has
and believes it now has enough data to rutile province with multiple occurrences been felt on Sovereign’s share price with
the junior’s stocks climbing 100% since
the turn of the year. Stephens said there
had also been corporate interest.
“We have had a couple of knocks on
the door. There is certainly some interest
out there and offtake interest as well,” he
said.
To keep fuelling that interest, Sovereign
will have to continue advancing the pro-
ject, but Stephens sees no impediments
to that plan with cash in the bank and a
sound jurisdictional base.
“We would need money probably at
some stage, but we have enough [$2.67
million at March 31] to get us through to
maiden resource,” he said. “Malawi itself
is a great jurisdiction. I’ve been working
there 14 years so have good connections
and Sovereign has great reputation. The
Government is right behind us and we are
a major player there.”

– Dominic Piper
Sovereign has almost stumbled over a potential new rutile province in Malawi

Page 60 JULY 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT