Codrus Minerals (ASX:CDR) has flagged a 16-fold expansion to its strategic footprint surrounding the Karloning Rare Earth Element (REE) Project in Western Australia.
The company, which has a $6.7 million market capitalisation, has pegged an additional 2 tenements in the project area. At the same time, Codrus has signed a Farm-In agreement with Fleet Street Holdings on its granted tenement E70/5630. The Karloning REE Project now covers an area of about 246km-square — a significant increase from Codrus’ previous holding of 15km-square.
The key terms of the agreement between Codrus and Fleet Street include Codrus paying Fleet Street $30,000 cash and issuing $30,000 worth of Codrus shares at a 5-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) within 7 days.
In addition, Codrus will have a minimum expenditure requirement of $100,000 within 12 months of signing the deal, and after completing this minimum spend, it may earn a 51% stage one interest by spending a further $250,000 within 24 months.
This interest can then be bolstered to 80% in stage two with another $250,000 of expenditure.
After reaching either the stage one or stage two interest, Codrus will use its best endeavours to define a resource, complete all applicable studies and procure the completion of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) in respect of the tenement.
Further, upon the definition of an indicated or measured resource of over 15 million tonnes of rare earth elements (REEs) at a grade of above 1000 parts per million (ppm) for the area, Codrus will issue 1 million shares to Fleet Street.
Then, upon the completion of a DFS on the tenement, Codrus will issue another 2 million fully paid ordinary shares to Fleet Street.
Commenting on the expanded landholding, Codrus Minerals Managing Director Shannan Bamforth says: “We are pleased to have been in a position to move swiftly to tie up what we believe to be all of the prospective rare earth ground surrounding and along strike from the Karloning REE discovery.
“Given that we are first movers in this district, it made strategic sense to expand our footprint quickly…”
Given that we are first movers in this district, it made strategic sense to expand our footprint quickly to make sure that Codrus is positioned to expand the scale of the mineralisation we have already discovered and potentially make additional discoveries in an area that we believe could emerge as a new rare earths province.
This is an important box to tick as we embark on the next phase of drilling to evaluate the broader scale of the mineralisation already drilled and begin to look further afield for possible new discoveries.”
This announcement comes after the company recently discovered a ‘significant’ clay-hosted REE system at Karloning, delivering ‘outstanding’ results from Codrus’s maiden 13-hole reverse circulation (RC) drill program for 1,906m of drilling
‘Outstanding’ assay results include drillhole KGRC008 with 24m @ 1,503 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth and yttrium oxide (TREYO) from 8m, including 12m @ 2,081ppm TREYO from 8m; and drillhole KGRC001 with 11m @ 2,825ppm TREYO from 9m, including 2m @ 6,883ppm TREYO from 13m.
Following the drill results, Codrus has an aircore drilling program underway to allow the company to investigate the potential scale of the clay-hosted mineralisation at the project.
Upon completion, Codrus will begin working on the new tenure, with baseline datasets to be collected in the coming months to inform drill targeting.
Codrus says the expansion of the Karloning REE Project represents an ‘excellent’ opportunity for the company to discover additional critical minerals.
Codrus Minerals is an ASX-listed diversified exploration company focusing on the rare earth sector.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Codrus Minerals Ltd
