Australian Rare Earths (ASX: AR3) reports that it has received assays from aircore drilling at the Francis prospect within its Koppamurra Project, with 10 holes delivering ‘significant’ intersections and grades consistent with earlier results from its Red Tail and Yellow Tail deposits.
Assays from the 10-hole program have delivered TREO grades between 600ppm to 1000ppm, which the company notes is analogous with the 725ppm average grade from its maiden resource released in April 2021.
“These initial results are … a positive indication of the potential size of resources that could be defined within our large holding of exploration tenure.”
Speaking on the results, Australian Rare Earths Managing Director Don Hyma said: “These initial results are an important validation of the regional extent of this style of mineralisation, and a positive indication of the potential size of resources that could be defined within our large holding of exploration tenure.”
The regional exploration work has confirmed that clay-hosted rare earth mineralisation extends to at least 40km north of the Red Tail and Yellow Tail mineral resource area, providing ‘significant’ prospectivity over the company’s 4,000km² tenure.
The current drilling program commenced in early October and is scheduled to wrap-up in December. The company reports that approximately 70% of the 8,000m program is now complete, with over 2,500 samples generated from across 458 holes.
Ongoing work is focussed on in-fill drilling at the Red Tail and Yellow Tail prospects, with a view to releasing an upgraded JORC resource in early 2022.
Map displaying recent drilling at Francis, with the Red Tail and Yellow Tail Mineral Resource located to the south at Comaum. Image: Australian Rare Eartha LimitedThe Koppamurra Project, situated on the South Australia / Victoria border, is an ionic-clay-hosted rare earth deposit, with a ‘unique endowment’ of elements used in the production of high-strength permanent magnets.
These elements, which include neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium are considered key in a number of strategic applications including EV motors, wind turbines and military equipment.
