Mkango Completes Rutile Exploration Programme and Awaits Laboratory Results

LONDON and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mkango Resources Ltd. (AIM/TSX-V: MKA) (the "Company" or "Mkango") 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.

A map of the sample positions is provided at the following link:

https://mkango.ca/site/assets/files/4775/20201202_Mchinji_sample_map.jpg

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

• Rutile, anatase and ilmenite are naturally occurring titanium dioxide (TiO₂) minerals, whose main uses are 90% for pigments, 5% production of titanium metal and 5% welding. Rutile is the purest, highest-grade natural form of TiO₂ and is the preferred feedstock in manufacturing titanium pigment and producing titanium metal.
  
  
• Finely powdered rutile is a brilliant white pigment and is used in paints, plastics, paper, foods, and other applications that call for a bright white colour. It has also been widely used in the production of glass, porcelain, and ceramics, as it is a valuable colouring agent. It can also be used to add colour to steels and copper alloys.
  
  
• Titanium also has specialty uses including in welding, aerospace and military applications.
  
  
• Iluka Resources Ltd (“Iluka”) reports that, when compared to current deposits and operations, the industry is facing declining grades and assemblages (the relative weightings of each mineral) for future deposits being developed. Sierra Rutile in Sierra Leone, owned by Iluka Resources Limited, is the only high-grade, large-scale operating primary-source natural rutile mine in the world.