5th Apr 2022 10:16
(Alliance News) - Sovereign Metals Ltd shares surged on Tuesday after it announced an updated estimate confirmed its Kasiya site in Malawi is the world's largest rutile deposit.
The Perth-based rutile exploration and development company said the new mineral resource estimate tripled previous estimates, with 18.0 million tonnes of contained rutile at the Kasiya mega-deposit. This follows the discovery and delineation of new high-grade zones, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the resource area.
Shares in Sovereign Metal climbed 13% to 51.21 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
Kasiya is now also considered the second-largest graphite deposit in the world, with contained flake graphite by-product now estimated at 23.4 million tonnes for the site.
662 million tonnes of the total mineral resource estimate refers to indicated category, with the remaining 1.11 billion tonnes in the inferred category.
Managing Director Julian Stephens commented: "It is a really remarkable achievement by our team to have made the largest natural rutile discovery ever in just two years since initial identification. The JORC MRE of this scale and grade is clearly highly strategic, Tier 1 and of global significance in a market where natural rutile is in extreme supply deficit.
"The step-change in scale will now allow us to examine potentially higher-grade throughput, increased production levels and a longer mine life in the upcoming scoping study update."
By Elizabeth Winter; [email protected]
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