PTR Minerals (ASX:PTR) reports a mining study has identified potential to access ‘high-grade’ zones grading 17% heavy mineral (HM) early in operations at its Rosewood Titanium Project in South Australia.
The preliminary mine optimisation and scheduling study by AMC Consultants evaluated four processing throughput scenarios across the project. Each demonstrates potential for mine sequence design to provide access to ‘higher-grade’ material early in the mine life to maximise initial cash flows.
Managing Director Rob Sennitt says the quality of the Rosewood resource continues to reveal itself, as the company completes each stage of its Scoping Study.
“The ability to mine the extremely high-grade zones at Rosewood in the early years of an operation could have a significant impact on the financial returns,” Sennitt says.
“Grading 17% HM, these zones are significantly higher-grade than other [heavy mineral sands] projects around the world.”
The study used the June 2026 Rosewood mineral resource estimate at a revenue factor of 0.5. Mine schedules for each throughput scenario comprise 73–85% plant feed from the indicated mineral resource classification.
Average life-of-mine plant feed grades range from 12% to 16% HM across mine lives spanning 22–35 years.
Rosewood hosts ‘high-grade’ zones containing more than 92% valuable heavy mineral (VHM). This gives the project a distinct operational advantage as one of the ‘higher-grade’ HMS projects globally.
The resource represents a single, large, coherent, and shallow deposit that PTR Minerals expects to be amenable to conventional open pit mining.
Metallurgical test work by Mineral Technologies has demonstrated potential to produce a ‘high-quality’ titanium product through wet concentration alone, without the additional dry separation stage previously contemplated.
Recent test work on a 3-tonne bulk sample achieved 81% recovery of VHM larger than 53 micrometres into final products. The recovery comprised 78.5% to the leucoxene product and 2.5% to a non-magnetic concentrate.
The resulting leucoxene product contains 66.4% titanium dioxide with minimal impurities. The quality is comparable to the primary product previously generated using additional dry separation.
“The opportunity to commence mining in higher-grade material provides a number of major advantages including minimising initial capital requirements and maximising early cash flows,” Sennitt adds.
The company has commenced discussions with potential customers to confirm indicative product acceptance and inform flowsheet development. Scoping Study activities for the Rosewood Project are well advanced, with principal technical workstreams substantially complete.
PTR Minerals is an Australian critical minerals explorer advancing a portfolio of assets in SA. This includes the Muckanippie Titanium Project, the Woomera and Mabel Creek iron-oxide-copper‑gold projects, and the Comet Gold‑Rare Earths Project.
Write to JC Villarba at Mining.com.au
Images: PTR Minerals
