Mkango Resources Ltd. is pleased to announce the completion of an extensive hand-auger drilling and soil sampling programme to identify rutile prospects within its 869 square kilometre (“sq. km”) Mchinji licence (EPL 0544/19) in Mchinji district, Malawi, held by Mkango’s 100% owned subsidiary MKA Exploration Ltd.
Four geological teams have completed 75 auger drill holes containing 581 samples and a further 446 soil samples have been collected from a soil sampling programme on a regular 500m sampling grid with 21 soil samples collected from other points of interest.
All samples have now been transported overland from Malawi to a specialist assay laboratory, Scientific Services in Cape Town, South Africa. Preparation of samples for heavy mineral separation is in progress, following which detailed mineralogical analysis will take place. The Company looks forward to updating the market further once it has received and evaluated the assay and mineralogical results.
The auger holes included a grid of holes centred around hole A6, drilled in June 2020 to 8.9m depth, which produced nine consecutive samples that contain between 4.10% and 9.01% total heavy minerals (specific gravity greater than 2.95) and grade between 3.17% and 4.09% titanium dioxide (TiO2) – see Mkango press release of 15 September, 2020: https://www.mkango.ca/news/mkango-announces-rutile-and-ilmenite-discovery-in-malawi
Rutile Market
Scientific and technical information contained in this release has been approved and verified by Dr. Scott Swinden of Swinden Geoscience Consultants Ltd, who is a “Qualified Person” in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
About Mkango
Mkango is focused on developing the Songwe Hill (“Songwe”) rare earth deposit in Phalombe district in Malawi and is looking forward to completing the feasibility study. Mkango’s primary business is exploration for rare earth elements and associated minerals in the Republic of Malawi, a country whose hospitable people have earned it a reputation as “the warm heart of Africa”. The Company holds interests in four exclusive prospecting licenses in Malawi: the Phalombe licence, the Thambani licence, the Chimimbe Hill licence and the Mchinji licence.
The main exploration target in the 51% held Phalombe licence is the Songwe rare earths deposit. This features carbonatite-hosted rare earth mineralisation and was subject to previous exploration in the late 1980s. Mkango completed an updated Pre-Feasibility Study for the project in November 2015 and a Feasibility Study is currently underway, the initial phases of which included a 10,900-metre drilling programme and an updated mineral resource estimate, announced in February 2019. In March 2019, the Company announced receipt of a £7 million (C$12.3 million) investment from Talaxis to fund completion of the Feasibility Study. Following completion of the Feasibility Study, Talaxis has an option to acquire a further 26% interest in Songwe by arranging financing for project development including funding the equity component thereof.
The main exploration targets in Mkango’s remaining three 100% held licences are, in the Thambani licence, uranium, niobium, tantalum and zircon, in the Chimimbe Hill licence, nickel, cobalt and chromite and in the Mchinji licence, rutile, gold, nickel, cobalt, base metals and graphite.
Mkango also holds a 75.5% interest in Maginito with the balance owned by Talaxis. Maginito is focused on downstream opportunities relating to the rare earths supply chain, in particular, recycling and other innovative technologies for the production of neodymium alloy powders and magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and other industries geared to decarbonisation of the economy.
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement may have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.
For further information on Mkango, please contact: | |
Mkango Resources Limited | |
Alexander Lemon | William Dawes |
President | Chief Executive Officer |
alex@mkango.ca
|
will@mkango.ca
|
UK: +44 207 3722 744 | Dr Paul Armitage |
Canada: +1 403 444 5979 | Chief Geologist |
www.mkango.ca | paul@mkango.ca |
@MkangoResources | |
Blytheweigh | SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP |
Financial Public Relations | Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker |
Tim Blythe | Jeff Keating, Caroline Rowe |
UK: +44 207 138 3204 | UK: +44 20 3470 0470 |
Alternative Resource Capital | |
Joint Broker | |
Alex Wood |