Marmota to commence maiden aircore drilling at Muckanippie titanium discovery
Exploration company Marmota (ASX: MEU) is set to begin a maiden drilling campaign at the Muckanippie heavy minerals-titanium project in South Australia which yielded bonanza assays in every discovery hole earlier this week.
The company will drill 89 aircore holes along the interpreted titanium-hosting palaeochannel at average depths of 30 metres to target titanium-bearing mineral sands from surface.
The palaeochannel is interpreted to be up to 5 kilometres in width over Marmota’s tenements.
Marmota’s exploration team has been mobilising to the project’s base camp at Aurora Tank located north of Muckanippie to prepare for the campaign.
All drilling supplies are expected to arrive at site in the coming days ahead of the campaign’s start date next week.
Drilling is scheduled for completion by the end of the month.
Natural progression
Marmota chairman Dr Colin Rose said the maiden campaign was a natural progression of the early work achieved to date at Muckanippie.
“Just two days ago, we announced heavy mineral assays featuring bonanza grades which confirm Muckanippie as a highly-significant discovery,” he said.
“We are now progressing with full speed a major follow-up drilling program to rapidly
advance, grow and develop this outstanding asset.”
Critical mineral
Titanium is one of the critical minerals identified by many countries, including Australia, and has a range of uses in energy storage, defence, space, semiconductors, surgical implants, pigments and the production of metal alloys.
Chemically-derived titanium dioxide boosts the efficiency and durability of photovoltaic cells in solar panels for renewable energy infrastructure.
New sodium titanate batteries are the subject of intense development due to their safety, financial and environmental benefits over lithium-ion batteries.
Notably, titanium was one of only 12 minerals included in the December 2024 NATO List of Defence Critical Raw Materials.
Marmota’s Muckanippie project features titanium dioxide grades of over 10%, with every discovery hole returning strong intersections from surface.
The project is located close to transport infrastructure, specifically the Adelaide-to-Darwin and Adelaide-to-Perth rail lines.