Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE) announces that infill reverse circulation (RC) drilling has continued to intersect thick, mineralised, rare earth elements (REE) ironstones at Yin, within its 100% owned Mangaroon Project.
Yin is interpreted to be a more than 16km long REE bearing ironstone swarm that both outcrops and extends under shallow cover at the project, located in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia.
The deposit shows evidence for parallel or stacked ironstone horizons. Rock chips collected in 2021 showed consistent mineralisation over 2.5km of outcropping ironstone with values up to 13.0% TREO and a general trend of the neodymium and praseodymium to TREO ratio (Nd2O3+Pr6O11:TREO) increasing to the north.
Dreadnought reports that drilling to date has confirmed the presence of the main REE bearing lode horizon along 3km of strike often with multiple parallel lodes intersected down hole. The main lode horizon pinches, swells, and changes dip and orientation along strike and ranges in thickness from 1-45m.
The parallel lodes have been intersected above and below the main lode and often exhibit a similar orientation as the main lode with thickness ranging from 1-10m.
The REE bearing ironstones consist of goethite and hematite dominated oxide zones near the surface (top ~80m) transitioning into a fresh ferrocarbonatite dyke (fresh REE ironstone), comprised of ankerite and siderite below the base of oxidation.
The ironstones are surrounded by a variable zone of fenitised country rock. Both the ironstone and the fenite immediately surrounding the ironstone are mineralised with each ironstone and ferrocarbonatite containing a central interval of higher-grade mineralisation.
“our understanding of the petrophysical properties has significantly improved”
Commenting on the results, Dreadnought Managing Director Dean Tuck noted: “With over 12,000m of drilling now complete at Yin, our understanding of the petrophysical properties has significantly improved.
This understanding has led to the identification of the Yin trend extending for ~16kms in strike, on which to date we have only drill tested ~3kms. We have also identified three new ironstone trends, including a possible link between Yin and Y3 and a new carbonatite target at C7.
We look forward to receiving assay results from our new targets and to inspecting the remaining 100 targets in our database.”
Mangaroon is a ‘first mover’ opportunity covering 4,500km-square located 250km southeast of Exmouth in the vastly underexplored Gascoyne Region of WA. Part of the project is targeting Ni-Cu-PGE and is subject to a joint venture with First Quantum Minerals (earning up to 70%).
The joint venture area contains outcropping high tenor Ni-Cu-PGE blebby sulphides in the recently defined Money Intrusion.
Dreadnought’s 100% owned areas contain outcropping ‘high-grade’ gold bearing quartz veins along the Edmund and Minga Bar Faults and outcropping high-grade REE ironstones, similar to those under development at the Yangibana REE Project.
Recently 6 potentially REE bearing carbonatite intrusions have been identified which may also be the source of the regional rare earths.
Images: Dreadnought Resources Ltd
