Petratherm’s (ASX:PTR) Rosewood prospect in South Australia is “shaping up to be a world-class heavy mineral sands project”, says CEO Peter Reid.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Reid says Rosewood has “very high grade” titanium heavy mineral sands over a very large area – at least 15km2 and growing.
“Petratherm has had a long history. We are a South Australian based company, traditionally copper gold explorers, but in September last year we made a major heavy mineral sands discovery in the northern Gawler Craton in South Australia. We call that our Rosewood project,” Reid tells this news service.
“We’ve completed a phase two drill program in March, April of this year at Rosewood. And prior to that, the drilling we had done in October 2024 identified an area extending roughly 8km west-east by about 2.2km north-south with really exceptional heavy mineral sand intercepts.
“We’ve drilled further to the north and we’ve extended that mineralisation now – another 1.6km, particularly in the Rosewood east area – by about 2.2km north-south with really exceptional heavy mineral sand intercepts.”
Titanium everywhere
Petratherm last week announced the first batch of HM assay results from the extensional drilling at the Rosewood heavy mineral sand (HMS) prospect, as reported by this news service.
During April, the company undertook a 128-hole vertical aircore drill program totalling 4,486m to test for titanium-bearing heavy mineral mineralisation at the Muckanippie Project in the northern Gawler Craton, South Australia.
As part of this program, 73 holes totalling 2,225m were drilled at the Rosewood prospect to follow up the ‘very high-grade’ heavy mineral mineralisation discovered late last year.
Some 50 drillholes for 1,697m were drilled in 2024 with the best results from the previous drilling including 22m @ 19.1% HM from 8m in drillhole 24RW0201 and over 90% of holes drilled intersecting at least 5m at >5% HM.
Assay results from the first 10 holes drilled this year have now been received returning some of the best results to date at Rosewood including 26m @ 17.2% HM from 7 metres in drill hole 25RW002 and 32m @ 11.1% HM from 10 metres in 25RW003.
As Reid explains to Mining.com.au, titanium dioxide or titanium metal is on Australia’s critical mineral list. In fact, it’s on most nations’ critical minerals lists.
Titanium is a lustrous, silver-grey metal highly resistant to corrosion, with low density but is both strong and lightweight. It is used in a variety of industries including power generation, utilities, automotive, and healthcare, due to its excellent strength-to-weight ratio and resistance to extreme temperatures and chemicals.
“You may not realise, but you brush with titanium dioxide every morning in your toothpaste. So it’s mainly used as a whitening agent for paper, plastics, paints, foods, it’s everywhere” Reid adds.
“Its other critical use is as a lightweight inert metal so your knee replacement or hip replacement or most recently there was even a titanium heart inserted in the patient that lasted 100 days with a titanium heart.
“It’s a lightweight inert metal. It doesn’t react, it doesn’t rust. So it’s used in medical science, but when you alloy it with iron, it produces lightweight steel products that’s used in aeronautics, wind turbines. Of course, Elon Musk slated some robot revolution. They’re all titanium robots. So a lot of titanium metals are being used there too. It’s a big international market.”
The titanium market size has grown in recent years and is forecasted to grow from US$27.23 billion in 2024 to US$28.68 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3%. The growth is attributed to aerospace advancements, military and defence applications, industrial expansion, medical implants and devices, as well as sports equipment development.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Petratherm
