Patagonia Lithium (ASX:PL3) has outlined 25 rare earth element (REE) drill targets across two exploration concessions in Goiás, Brazil, comprising 15 new locations and 10 that coincide with existing sample sites.
The company deployed a deterministic system called Logos to assess concessions 860164 and 860165 ahead of planned auger sampling and drilling.
Logos draws on public geophysical data, including gravity, magnetics, topography, and fault geometry, alongside radiometric and fenitisation filters and an AI screening layer. Unlike conventional machine-learning models, Logos does not require a training dataset.
Patagonia reports that all 40 predictions made during local blind testing landed within 2km of withheld sample locations. The average localisation error was 450m, the median was 280m, and the closest prediction was less than 100m from its matched sample.
At a regional scale, the system located all five known REE-bearing carbonatite complexes within 30km during leave-one-out testing. The closest matches were 1.3km from the Araxá Carbonatite and 2.6km from Catalão I.
Executive Chairman Phillip Thomas says the technology has helped sharpen the company’s exploration program.
“We were able to utilise the latest AI and other technology to shore up our auger and drill targets in Goiás state to drastically improve our chances of REE discovery in ionic clays,” Thomas says.
Six field samples with total rare earth oxide (TREO) and niobium results served as reference points. The company also notes that the targeting drew partly on an airborne gamma survey covering 872 stations within the concession boundaries.
Patagonia says the relationship between thorium and TREO showed a correlation of 0.90 across two surveys flown 31 years apart. However, the model’s predicted TREO content shows a weaker correlation of 0.31 and remains to be tested through fieldwork.
Meanwhile, the five highest-ranked new targets, with scores of 0.89–0.92, have been prioritised for initial ground-truthing, soil sampling, and rock chip sampling. Patagonia says it also plans to conduct a ground magnetics survey to test the interpreted structures and geology.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au
