The project is promisingly located near major transport arteries, including the Adelaide-Darwin and Adelaide-Perth rail lines, giving Marmota a strategic leg-up when it comes time to delivering its titanium to market.
The company says unlike many global titanium deposits burdened by deep mineralisation and high processing costs, Marmota’s finds are shallow, high-grade, and highly accessible.
The Muckanippie find sits within the revered Archaean Mulgathing Complex of the Gawler Craton, the find is just 50km from Marmota’s core gold projects at its Aurora tank and Campfire bore. Notably, all of its gold resources at the core projects sit close to surface – within 100m – making them amenable to open-pit mining and low-cost processing similar to what it expects possible at Muckanippie.
Adding further intrigue to this latest discovery, Marmota’s palaeochannel envelops both sides of Petratherm’s titanium project, giving it a commanding hold over this emerging region.
The company has been quick to highlight that its grades far outshine its neighbour’s best assays, bolstering the company’s already bullish market narrative which has seen Petratherm’s share price take flight, soaring about 1500 per cent higher in the past 6 months.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, titanium is also flying of late with the mineral’s status being boosted by rising demand for its use in cutting-edge technologies, from electric vehicles and solar panels to aerospace and defence.
Mining giant Rio Tinto recently stated because of the mineral’s lightweight, titanium dioxide can help reduce fuel consumption for a variety of new transport options, allowing the option for planes and cars to travel farther with less impact on the environment.
Marmota says that Muckanippie’s emerging high-grade deposits are uniquely poised to meet this growing demand, delivering titanium dioxide with market-leading grades and ease of accessibility.
With the mineralisation still open in all directions, it seems Marmota could be sitting on a veritable titanium treasure trove in the revered Gawler Craton. And, as the good news continues to flow for the company it is hoping it can prove Muckanippie does indeed have all the right ingredients for a potentially standalone titanium deposit.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
