Shares in American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR) have spiked following a new bout of ‘exceptional’ drilling results from the company’s Halleck Creek project in Wyoming.
The results come from 8 diamond holes completed in the project area as part of an interim 2023 resource drilling campaign, with the results exhibiting an average of 4,478 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) — 35% higher than the average TREO grades of 3,309 ppm TREO from its previous resource estimate.
American Rare Earths says from one deep hole, drilled to 302m, assays confirmed consistent enriched rare earth element (REE) mineralisation from surface, and the deposit remains open at depth.
This hole intercepted 226.5m @ 5,084 ppm TREO and 1,311 magnet rare earth oxides (MREO).
The average TREO grade from 7 of the 8 holes was 4,550 ppm, with the 8th hole at 3,718 ppm. The highest TREO observed was 9,881 ppm.
Moreover, ‘high-value’ neodymium and praseodymium averaged 23% of the TREO, consistent with prior drilling.
Assays remain pending for 15 reverse circulation (RC) holes.
Shares in American Rare Earths were up 10.64% to $0.16 as of 2:06 pm AEDT on 7 December 2023.
American Rare Earths CEO Donald Swartz says the new drilling results are ‘simply outstanding’.
“The purpose of this drill campaign was to confirm that the deposit is actually much larger than the current resource model, while also being homogenous and cost-effective to mine.
We are very excited to upgrade the existing JORC Resource in the near term as well as with the future potential given that the depth of enrichment was more than double previous results.”
In November, Swartz told Mining.com.au the company was aiming to achieve production at Halleck Creek as early as 2026, with the grades from Halleck Creek and its metallurgical success underpinning these plans.
“We kind of have this best-of-both-worlds thing, where it’s really high-grade in comparison to clay, but everyone’s calling it a hard rock,” Swartz said at the time.
Today, Swartz said the latest metallurgy results from Halleck Creek further affirm a similar processing efficiency compared to a clay-hosted deposit,
“The ore easily leaches and will not require the complex cracking operation and additional processing steps seen with other hard rock deposits. Being low in the penalty elements of thorium and uranium places Halleck Creek in a unique position of having the best of both worlds (higher grade and easier processing). We are looking forward to the pending assays, upgrading the resource and rapidly advancing our flagship project.”
“The ore easily leaches and will not require the complex cracking operation and additional processing steps seen with other hard rock deposits”
According to the latest metallurgy tests, 4,448 ppm TREO is ‘easily upgraded’ into around 2% TREO utilising conventional wet high-intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS) technology.
Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au
Images: American Rare Earths
