Fortuna Metals begins 66-hole drilling programme at Malawi rutile project

Fortuna Metals has started a 66-hole hand-auger drilling programme at its Kampini project in Malawi, targeting about 50 km of prospective rutile-bearing geology associated with the company’s Mkanda project and Sovereign Metals’ nearby Kasiya deposit.

The Phase 1 reconnaissance programme is designed to traverse the Kampini tenement from west to east while following up on historical shallow drillholes that returned elevated titanium dioxide (TiO₂) results.

According to an announcement released by Fortuna Metals on October 5, historical drilling at Kampini returned results including 8m at 1.46% TiO₂, 7m at 2.14% TiO₂ and 8m at 1.57% TiO₂.

The company said the historical drilling at Kampini has been limited, making the current programme an opportunity to test the broader extent of the mineralisation.

Fortuna Metals CEO Tom Langley said the exploration team had moved to Kampini after recently completing a 7,600m aircore programme across its Malawi projects.

“The phase 1 drilling has the dual purpose to traverse the tenement from west to east over the entire ~50km strike of the rutile bearing lithology host to the Mkanda and Kasiya deposits and follow up on historical drillholes that returned high titanium values in shallow hand auger drilling,” Langley said.

The Kampini and Mkanda projects cover a combined 658 km² and are located about 20 km south of Kasiya, which Fortuna describes as the world’s largest rutile and second-largest flake graphite deposit.

Fortuna said Kampini contains about 50 km of strike of the prospective rutile-bearing graphite-biotite-muscovite schist that hosts the mineralisation at Mkanda and Kasiya. The company said there has been limited historical drilling across Kampini to test for widespread rutile mineralisation.

At Mkanda, a historical drillhole returned 10m at 1.35% TiO₂, while a twin hole drilled by Fortuna in 2025 returned 10m at 0.76% TiO₂.

The company has also completed 1,323 hand-auger holes totalling 10,713m at Mkanda. Its 2026 programme there included 648 hand-auger holes totalling 5,313m, while a separate 7,618m aircore programme has recently been completed.

Fortuna said priority aircore assay results from its Mlongo, Kahuna and Agogo targets are expected shortly, with results to be released on an ongoing basis over the coming months.

The company is also analysing samples for graphite and rare earth elements as part of its broader multi-commodity exploration strategy in Malawi.

Fortuna has cautioned, however, that the historical titanium results should not be interpreted as rutile grades or an indication of economic value. It said titanium assays alone cannot establish the contribution of rutile and that detailed laboratory analysis is required to determine the actual presence and grade of rutile mineralisation.

The company said its current exploration programme is intended to identify areas of higher-grade rutile mineralisation and guide follow-up drilling across the Kampini project.