- 01Drilling hits record 3.43% rutile at Mlongo.
- 027m at 2.27% lies below Mkanda’s resource base.
- 03Kampini auger drilling begins across the 658sq km project area.
Maiden aircore drilling by Fortuna Metals (ASX: FUN) at the Mlongo prospect within its Mkanda rutile project in Malawi has delivered strong assays below the base of the 300-million-tonne inferred mineral resource estimate.
The first batch of results from the 7,618-metre campaign included 3.43% rutile—the highest grade recorded at Mkanda to date—from 32m depth within a larger, high-grade zone of 7m at 2.27% rutile.
The Mkanda and nearby Kampini projects extend over an area of 658 square kilometres of prospective trend along strike of Sovereign Metals’ (ASX: SVM) Kasiya discovery, which is currently the largest rutile deposit and second largest flake graphite deposit in the world alongside monazite mineralisation hosting strategic heavy rare earths.
Fortuna recently closed out Mkanda’s first major hand auger infill program of 2026, completing 648 drill holes to an average depth of 8.2m for a total of 5,313m, taking the total number of auger holes completed at the project to 1,323 for 10,713m.
Drilling at Mkanda in the previous year was designed as first-pass reconnaissance to investigate large areas of high-grade rutile and graphite mineralisation and inform the company’s maiden inferred MRE of 298Mt grading 0.87% rutile and 1.19% total graphitic content at a 0.7% cut-off including 159Mt at 0.98% rutile and 1.11% TGC (0.8% cut-off).
Emerging Rutile Province
Chief executive officer Tom Langley said the encouraging early results highlighted Mkanda’s potential in an emerging major new rutile province.
“Mlongo is one of several prospects we have just completed drilling and these aircore results demonstrate a truly world-class, high-grade rutile mineral system that is only getting bigger,” he said.
“As we receive more assays in the coming weeks and months, I expect the quality and scale of the deposit to grow which is an exciting prospect when you consider the maiden inferred resource to 8m depth has already placed Mkanda in the top six projects in the world for contained rutile.”
“Of special interest is the highest rutile grade of 3.43%, which we believe demonstrates significant potential to find more high grades at depth below the current base limit of the inferred MRE.”
Kampini Auger Drilling
Phase 1 hand auger drilling commenced this week at Kampini comprising 66 holes across the entire tenement from west to east aimed at identifying areas of high-grade rutile and to follow up on historical drill holes that recorded high titanium dioxide values including 8m at 1.46%, 7m at 2.14% and 8m at 1.57%.
Importantly, Kampini has 50km of strike of the prospective rutile-bearing graphite biotite-muscovite schist that hosts Mkanda and Kasiya, with limited historical drilling completed to test for widespread rutile mineralisation.
Rutile is the purest and highest-grade form of naturally occurring titanium feedstock for high-end titanium metal used in robotics, aerospace, and defence applications.
Rare earths and graphite analysis is being carried out at Fortuna’s in-country lab as part of a multi-commodity focus given recent strategic heavy rare earths recovered at Kasiya and the coarse flake graphite known to occur in the region.
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