Resources Top 5: Tusker charges into African critical minerals as Lodestar eyes Chilean copper

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Tusker Minerals (ASX:TSK)

Tusker has made further progress with its critical minerals strategy in central Africa by identifying high-grade titanium mineralisation at the Mzimba project in northern Malawi.

This comes hot on the heels of TSK commissioning a heavy mineral sands laboratory in Yaoundé, Cameroon to support rutile exploration.

The news has seen the company move from 6.3c on Wednesday to 9.7c with today’s rise marking a 49.25% increase on the previous close of 6.5c.

At Mzimba soil and rock samples returned up to 1.88% TiO2, and nearly half the samples exceeded 1%, pointing to strong near-surface enrichment.

Importantly, XRF geochemical analysis and XRD mineralogical testing show the titanium is mostly rutile, the highest-value natural titanium mineral.

Results were derived from early-stage reconnaissance sampling covering around 50km2, representing about 7% of the 710km2 licence package.

The geological setting of Mzimba is similar to major Malawian rutile deposits, including the Kasiya project of Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM).

Tusker said the results highlighted the potential for the project to host a significant residual rutile system.

“With more than 700km2 of largely unexplored tenure, we see significant potential to expand these results as we advance follow-up sampling and auger drilling programs,” CEO Cliff Fitzhenry said.

Over in Cameroon, the HMS laboratory, which is fully operational, will give Tusker in-country capability to process all soil, auger and future drill samples from its local projects. 

The ability to rapidly process samples in-country and determine concentrations of key heavy minerals, particularly rutile, is expected to significantly accelerate exploration and unlock the full potential of Tusker’s Cameroon rutile and HMS portfolio.

“This is not simply an operational upgrade – it fundamentally enhances how we evaluate the exceptional rutile potential across our project portfolio,” Fitzhenry said.

“We believe our Cameroon portfolio has the potential to host large-scale rutile systems and this new laboratory capability will be instrumental in unlocking that opportunity.

“As global titanium demand accelerates in green technologies and high-performance industries, these assets strengthen our portfolio and offer substantial long-term value for shareholders.”