ABx Group (ASX: ABX) has been granted two significant exploration licences covering the southwards extensions of the Portrush REE discovery area1 near Launceston in northern Tasmania.
Two tenements, EL27/2022 and EL28/2022, total 483 sq. km and have been granted for an initial term of five years. They are located ~52 km east of ABx’s major Deep Leads / Rubble Mound REE project.
We’ve wanted to secure these two exploration areas ever since we obtained our highest rare earths grade of 4,812 ppm total rare earth oxides in hole PR033 at our Portrush discovery,” Managing Director and CEO, Mark Cooksey, said.
“These two large exploration licences significantly increase our rare earths exploration footprint in Tasmania to almost 600 km2, and I look forward to getting on the ground and kicking off our exploration program to locate more ionic adsorption clay rare earth deposits.”
Next steps
ABx will initially undertake exploration programmes at the two tenements to target prospective areas using the knowledge it has gained at the Deep Leads / Rubble Mound project and re- assaying of bottom of hole samples from the Portrush licence.
Targets will then be tested for ionic adsorption clay rare earth deposits with RC drilling using a modified drilling method including push tube core drilling method. Based on assay results, ABx may extend its drilling programs at the tenements.
In addition, the exploration licence application covering the 16 km extension from Deep Leads / Rubble Mound to the Wind Break discovery area, which will expand the rare earths target area from 35 sq. km to more than 100 sq. km, remains in progress.
