EMU (ASX:EMU) has completed its maiden aircore drilling program at the 100% owned Condingup REE Project near Esperance Western Australia, with all samples submitted for laboratory analysis.
Assay results are anticipated in October from a drilling program the company says was completed on time and budget.
EMU’s 100% owned Condingup Rare Earth Project is located 35km southeast of OD6’s (ASX:OD6) Splinter Rock Project. That project is achieving success in a similar geological seƫng within rare earth elements-enriched Booanya suite granites.
EMU’s 34-hole, 2,762m program tested the company’s conceptual modelling at Condingup which proposes high concentrations of REEs adjacent to and overlying the Booanya granite intrusive rocks.
Drill collar locations were planned to intercept the “clay traps” interpreted from a passive seismic survey completed by EMU in July 2023.
Average drillhole depth to basement rock recorded was 81.2m, coincident with the depths interpreted from the passive seismic survey. The program proved to be ‘exceptionally’ successful in that the drilling intercepted abundant, thick clay layer horizons in line with expectation.
This achievement confirms EMU’s exploration targeting for broad areas of REE enriched clays overlying the Booanya Granites in zones of deep weathering clay traps and within prominent channels on the flanks of this granite lithology.
EMU has posited the possibility of high value concentrations of REE in these zones based on its previous rock chip and clay sampling programmes and the passive seismic geophysical survey.
The eagerly awaited assay results from this drill programme will confirm the fertility of these target zones at depth.
This ‘first-pass’ drilling program tested only a small proportion of the substantial portfolio of targets EMU has generated in the extensive 1,560 square kilometre Condingup REE Project. The drill program focused on the western and eastern Booanya granite intrusive suites.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
