Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) has laid out plans to increase the magnetic modelling area over its North Barkly Project in Queensland after identifying ‘extensive’ rare earth element (REE) enrichment.
The company says this increased modelling area will include exploration licence (EL) zones under application, though aeromagnetic surveys may need to be flown after exploration licence grants are secured to provide sufficiently dense data to detect the more subtle features within the project area.
Areas with potentially ‘high’ background rare earths uncovered will be a ‘high priority’ for further drilling. Green Critical Minerals says these include shallow magnetic bodies, basement granites, and iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) alteration systems.
This news comes after Green Critical Minerals reported assay results from a wide-spaced drilling program completed in September that confirmed extensive REE enrichments within North Barkly.
Green Critical Minerals reports drillholes returned up to 1,266 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxide (TREO).
The company says the flat-lying REE mineralisation is hosted in clays that lie about 20m above the base of total weathering and are acid soluble.
‘High-value’ REEs make up a ‘high’ percentage of the total mineralisation identified, with dysprosium, neodymium, and praseodymium together making up 29.9% of the TREO.
Further, the Cretaceous intrusion in the area and the associated ‘large’ magnetic body are spatially related to the best results, which confirms it as another ‘high-priority’ target for future drilling.
The North Barkly Project covers 1,950km-square over pastoral lands on the Barkly tablelands, 500km northwest of Mount Isa, Queensland.
Green Critical Minerals is an Australia-based mineral explorer and developer with a diversified portfolio considered prospective for base metals, rare earths, critical minerals, graphite and tungsten.
As of 30 September 2023, the company had $1.507 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Green Critical Minerals
