Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) has returned ‘high-grade’ total rare earth oxide (TREO) assays up to 1.08% with 59% heavy rare earth oxide (HREO) ratio following aircore (AC) and initial reverse circulation (RC) drilling at its North Stanmore rare-earth-element (REE) Project in Western Australia.
The results, generated by AC, RC and diamond drilling (DD) techniques, have uncovered ‘significant’ levels of kaolinite, which has been confirmed by x-ray diffraction, and continue to confirm very valuable heavy rare earth elements ratio of 36% HREO/TREO and critical magnet metals neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) + dysprosium-terbium (DyTb) ratio of 23.4% of total REEs.
Victory Metals notes mineralisation continues to be open in all directions, and that the average grade from assays is 1023 parts per million (PPM) TREO with HREYO/TREO ratio of 36% from an ‘impressive’ data set of 489 samples collected at 1m intervals across 135 holes.
“These are significant results within clay REE style deposits, and we are pleased that Victory’s rare earth in Western Australia continues to prove itself”
Key intersections from North Stanmore include hole NSTAC004 with 32m @ 1,047ppm TREO from 36m including 12m @ 2,038ppm TREO and 8m @ 2,467ppm TREO from 48m; hole NSTAC032 with 16m @ 2,155ppm TREO from 21m, including 6m @ 4,683ppm TREO and 2m @ 9,681ppm TREO; and hole NSTRC071 with 10m @ 1,658ppm TREO from 32m including 1m @ 1.08% (10,829ppm) TREO from 39m.
Results reported to date account for 58% of assays from both drilling programs, with remaining assays from AC, RC, and diamond drilling at the company’s North Stanmore Alkaline Intrusion expected to be received in batches throughout Q1 2023.
Commenting on the results, Victory Metals Executive Director Brendan Clark said: “These are significant results within clay REE style deposits, and we are pleased that Victory’s rare earth in Western Australia continues to prove itself.
Today’s highlighted TREO assay result is comparable with hard rock deposit grades and provides further evidence that the North Stanmore regolith hosts a high-grade ionic clay rare earth system.
It is a strategic approach to conduct ammonium sulphate leachate analyses with Intertek as this will provide early data that will assist the metallurgical process overall. Metallurgy is about finding the right blend of material to process as well as optimising the chemistry of the leach reagent.
It is Victory’s early understanding that the regolith with Ce/Ce <1 that is Heavy Rare Earth enriched potentially could be extracted with less difficulty than the Light Rare Enriched part of the system with Ce/Ce >1, producing a Ce dominated Light Rare Earth Element suite that except for NdPr is not particularly valuable.
These results continue Victory’s exploration success, and our next steps include the continuation of the metallurgical test work, the preparation of the JORC mineral resource estimate and further exploration as the North Stanmore REE discovery remains open in all directions.”
The company also notes that over 3,000m of RC drilling has now been completed, and is currently being undertaken to support the preparation of a REE JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
In addition, it is reported anomalous REE assays continue to confirm very low contents of radioactive elements of thorium (Th) and uranium (U) up to 8ppm and 2.6ppm respectively, which are essentially identical to average upper continental crust, and indicate no actinide anomalism in the North Stanmore regolith.
Victory Metals is an ASX-listed company focused on the exploration and development of its REE and Scandium Discovery in the Cue Region of Western Australia. The company’s key assets include a portfolio of projects located in the midwest region of Western Australia about 665km from Perth.
This portfolio of projects comprises the North Stanmore REE discovery, the Eagle Hawk mine, the Young Australia Project, and the Emily Wells Project in WA.
