ABx Group (ASX:ABX) has started a rare earth exploration drilling program across its northern Tasmanian tenements to define potential mine areas within the Deep Leads-Rubble Mound resource.
The program focuses on identifying the highest-quality, potentially mineable sections of the main resource. These include zones used to produce the company’s initial mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) samples, which received positive feedback from potential customers in Australia and North America.
ABx is deploying a proprietary rapid testing technique that conducts in-house leach tests at its laboratory near Launceston Airport. The technology assesses ionic rare earth content during exploration and grade-control drilling, allowing the campaign to be optimised daily rather than waiting weeks for assay results.
The company’s resource estimate for Deep Leads-Rubble Mound and Wind Break totals 89 million tonnes (Mt) averaging 844 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO). This comprises 41Mt inferred, 42Mt indicated, and 6Mt measured.
The deposit contains 36ppm dysprosium+terbium, representing 4.4% of TREO. This marks the highest concentration of any ionic clay deposit in Australia and places it among the highest globally. The resource is also highly enriched in other heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) subject to Chinese export restrictions.
Managing Director and CEO Mark Cooksey says the program represents an important next step in the company’s rare earth strategy.
“We already have a substantial resource at Deep Leads-Rubble Mound and Wind Break, and our focus is increasingly turning to understanding where the highest-quality and most readily extractable mineralisation occurs within that broader resource,” Cooksey says.
ABx is also planning subsequent drilling stages to test less explored areas, including first-pass drilling within newly acquired tenements EL27/2022 and EL28/2022, located 55km east of Deep Leads, and EL25/2022, which sits between the Rubble Mound and Wind Break deposits.
Cooksey notes considerable exploration potential remains across the broader tenement package, with only limited drilling undertaken across several areas.
“Our objective is to better define and understand the best parts of the resource we already have, while continuing to test the potential for further discoveries across our northern Tasmanian rare earth portfolio,” he says.
ABx will progressively test additional areas as the program advances.
ABx Group is developing HREEs, hydrogen fluoride, and bauxite projects in Australia.
Write to Paula Fabe at Mining.com.au
Images: ABx Group
