ABx Group’s (ASX: ABX) updated Mineral Resource Estimate has more than tripled the tonnage of the rare earth elements (REE) deposit at the Deep Leads – Rubble Mound channel, located in northern Tasmania, Australia.
The substantial upgrade of the Mineral Resource at a higher cut-off grade is a phenomenal result, and I am exceptionally pleased with the emerging deposit at Deep Leads – northern Tasmania’s first clay-hosted rare earths discovery,” ABx Group Managing Director and CEO, Mark Cooksey, said.
“Adding to our excitement are the pending assays from our latest drilling, which in some cases have intersected REE zones greater than 30m thick ending in mineralisation, in addition to the planned infill drilling at known REE locations.
“Following these results, Deep Leads has been confirmed to have a strike length extending seven kilometres with the mineralised area open in all directions. The area covered by Resource drilling has increased from 2.35 sq. km to 5.73 sq. km, which is less than 17% of the total 35 sq. km prospective area.
“The Rubble Mound discovery located 6.5km southeast of Deep Leads is confirmed to be part of the same REE mineralisation system as Deep Leads and may eventually extend the REE mineralisation horizon beyond 10km.
“This Mineral Resource estimation will help ABx decide how wide it must spread its drilling to find its minimum economic target with the remaining holes in this drilling program. As at9 March, results were pending from a further 30 drillholes and are now pending from 50 drillholes, which can substantially expand the resources.
“While the growing size of this shallow mineralised channel discovered at Deep Leads is a major revelation, I encourage investors to look closely at the project, which is enriched with high-value rare earths used for permanent magnets in advanced technologies, such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium.
“Furthermore, our work with Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has confirmed our mineralisation as ionic adsorption clay, which are capable of delivering high REE recoveries using benign, low-cost processing.
“Not all clays are created equal and, while clay-hosted REEs are an emerging exploration target, very few deposits globally are confirmed as IAC.”
The interim Mineral Resource is based on 720 drillholes totalling 5,825 metres drilled and 2,091 metres assayed.
This Resource estimate is slightly shallower than the previously announced Maiden Resource, with the average overburden reducing from 4.4m to 3.8m.
By applying the higher cut-off grade of 250ppm TREO-CeO2 for this Resource estimate, the average resource thickness reduced from 7.8m to 7m. However, following the discovery of several thicker, yet to be assayed holes, ABx anticipates the thickness to increase in future estimates.
To assist the planning of further drill-evaluation strategies, a tonnage-grade graph has been created to show the tonnages of resources and average grade of those tonnages, sorted from highest grade to lowest grade.
Results are reported in TREO as well as TREO minus cerium oxide, as CeO2 is relatively low in value.