Drilling results from Axel REE’s (ASX:AXL) Caldas South Block have identified a second potential in situ recovery (ISR) area within the company’s Brazilian rare earth portfolio.
The company completed 28 auger holes for 315m across seven exploration licences covering around 12,009 hectares on the southwestern margin of the Poços de Caldas Alkaline Complex in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Total and magnesium sulphate leach assays confirm broad, near-surface ionic adsorption clay rare earth mineralisation.
Standout soluble leach results include 6m @ 921 parts per million (ppm) soluble total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 3m, including 1m @ 1,542 ppm soluble TREO from 5m. The company also reports 35% magnetic rare earth oxides within the 6m interval and 38% within the 1m ‘high-grade’ section.
Managing Director Patience Mpofu says the results establish Caldas South as a potential second ionic rare earth district within the company’s portfolio, following the pathway being developed at its flagship Woolrich deposit.
“The drilling confirms broad, near-surface mineralisation, and the leach results show that a meaningful portion of that inventory sits in an exchangeable ionic form – the key characteristic we look for in a potential ISR target,” Mpofu says.
“Encouragingly, the mineralisation is hosted in weathered granitic and gneissic saprolite outside the central alkaline complex, a different geological setting that warrants dedicated permeability and hydrogeological assessment.”
Axel maintains that Woolrich remains its most advanced project and primary focus within the 572-million-tonne rare earth Caladão Project. Recent column leach testwork at the project has demonstrated strong rare earth ISR amenability, underpinning upcoming exploratory ISR field trials.
Axel plans to confirm and expand the soluble TREO dataset across representative Caldas South lithologies, complete mineralogical and clay characterisation studies, and define priority areas for follow-up work.
Axel REE is a critical minerals explorer and developer focused on its ionic clay-hosted rare earths and gallium portfolio in Brazil.
Write to Paula Fabe at Mining.com.au
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