Krakatoa Resources (ASX: KTA) reports that it has discovered ionic-type rare earth elements following supplementary analysis of RC drilling undertaken at its Rand Gold Project in New South Wales.
Highlight rare earth intersections from the re-assayed samples include:
- Hole HAC020: 11m @ 1,223ppm TREO from 43m
- Hole HAC023: 7m @ 1,285ppm TREO from 42m; within 28m @ 598ppm TREO from 38m to EOH
- Hole HAC029: 4m @ 1,424ppm TREO from 35m; within 12m @ 633ppm TREO from 31m
- Hole HAC043: 8m @ 1,230ppm TREO from 9m; within 35m @ 579ppm TREO from 1m to EOH
The company had earlier reported ‘encouraging’ gold grades from the AC program, which was targeting a large Intrusive Related Gold System at the Rand Bullseye Magnetic targets, located approximately 2.5km north of the town of Rand in the Riverina district.
Krakatoa’s CEO Mark Major commented “We are excited with the recent rare earth element reconnaissance assay results. The review on the initial assay results identified anomalous REEs within the multielement program on many of the AC samples. As such a more detailed investigation was required to ascertain the significance of this find.
“We can now report we have identified significant levels of rare earth elements within the regolith profile of the bullseyes area”
We can now report we have identified significant levels of rare earth elements within the regolith profile of the bullseyes area; both within the metasediments and over the intrusives. We are still very early in this investigation and can only speculate on the origins of the rare earths, but it is clear they have concentrated in the clay rich saprolite zones above the intrusives as well as within the metasediments surrounding these.
The full hole analysis has shown significant widths of REE concentrations, and more recent weak acid testing indicates a high level of readily mobile REE exist. There seems to be an ionic clay host embodiment over the weathering of the intrusions which is the most likely source of the REE. Further work will be undertaken to understand the source and more importantly the distribution of the REE.
This is the first discovery of clay hosted REE within this area of NSW. The Company has significantly expanded its land holding over the already large area via applications of additional tenure with similar geophysical signatures and underlying geology.”
The AC drilling program, completed in the first half of 2021 was comprised of 43 vertical holes, drilled to blade refusal. In addition to gold and other IRGS pathfinder elements, ‘high’ levels of cerium, lanthanum and Yttrium were returned.
Following this, a batch of 16 laboratory pulp samples from across 13 holes were selected for rare earth analysis using a process called full digestion lithium borate fusion analysis. This returned ‘significant’ levels of rare earth mineralisation, with ‘abundant’ levels of neodymium, praseodymium and yttrium.
As a result, the company now considers Rand to be prospective for IRGS, shear-hosted (orogenic) gold, magmatic tin–tungsten deposits, copper–gold porphyries with associated epithermal systems, and rare earths in shallow regolith.
Following a review of the regional area, 2,241km² of additional ground has been added to the project to cover potential rare earth hosting intrusives. Further studies and RC drilling are planned in Q1 2022 subject to approvals and land access.
