Australia Securities Exchange listed company Fortuna Metals has announced positive rutile exploration results from its Mkanda Rutile-Graphite Project in Mchinji, further boosting the country’s mineral deposits. The company, which is exploring for mineals in Malawi, other parts of Africa and the southern part of Australia, said the drilling results demonstrate that high grade rutile continues from surface to end of hole, with four drill holes ending in mineralisation above one percent rutile. This announcement follows the firm’s quantitative evaluation of minerals by scanning electron microscopy analysis results which confirm rutile as the dominant titanium mineral, accounting for 80 percent.
In a statement, Fortuna chief executive officer Tom Langley described the results as a defining moment of a potential world-class rutile discovery, in line with their expectations, given the close proximity to Sovereign Metals Kasiya deposit in Lilongwe. He said: “The high grade and widespread results are exactly what we were hoping for, highlighting the significant potential for rutile mineralisation to occur over large areas of the Mkanda project from surface which currently also remains open at depth. “This provides us with the distinct advantage to leverage off the multiple published mineralogical and metallurgical studies completed by Sovereign highlighting rutile is the dominant titanium mineral,” he said.
In a brief interview, Ministry of Energy and Mining director of mines Samuel Sakhuta said he is yet to appreciate the results and the company’s statement to competently comment. When asked whether the proximity of Sovereign Metals Kasiya project, said to have the world’s largest rutile deposits, could determine the quantities available at Mkanda, he said although geological boundaries are different from political borders, it is too early to conclude before further analysis. Earlier, Secretary for Mining Martin Kaluluma Phiri said the ministry wants Geological Survey Department to conduct detailed exploration so that companies should not start from studies when investing in the sector.
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He said that medium and large scale miners in the country are forced to start from exploration before feasibility studies and the actual extraction, a long and expensive process. In a separate interview, geologist mining consultant Grain Malunga described exploration as a key element in mining as it establishes the quantities of the deposits to determine whether they are worth investing in for extraction. He said leaving investors to do the exploration studies increases the cost of investment, which makes it difficult for them to let local investors get equity participation at a later stage based on significant investment they put in during exploration.
“It is very necessary for government and local investors to participate at exploration because they can be part and parcel of the project from the initial stages although most local companies are not willing to take such a risk considering its capital intensive nature,” Malunga said. Mining is part of the ATMM Strategy comprising agriculture, tourism, mining and manufacturing around which government expects to build the nation’s economy in line with aspirations in Malawi 2063, the country’s long-term development strategy.
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