Australia’s next rare earths producer, Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX: HAS) has unveiled a significant increase in the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region.
The new Mineral Resource estimate is the result of a successful 13,334m drilling campaign at Yangibana during 2021-2022 targeting the eight km long Bald Hill – Simon’s Find – Fraser’s trend which is in close proximity to the process plant and vital for the ore feed required upon project commissioning scheduled for H2 2024.
The drilling programme increased the Indicated Mineral Resources along the Bald Hill – Simon’s Find – Frasers deposits by 50% to 9.84Mt or by a 31% increase for the Measured + Indicated Mineral Resources to 14.16Mt for the same deposits.
Total Mineral Resources at the Yangibana project now stand at 29.93Mt @ 0.93% TREO
Summary
The updated Yangibana Mineral Resource Estimate has been estimated use drilling covering the Bald Hill, Simon’s Find, and Fraser’s deposits. Auer, Yangibana, Yangibana North-West, Kane’s Gossan, Gossan, Lion’s Ear and Hook Mineral Resources are unchanged to those previously announced.
The drilling programme conducted from November 2021 to February 2022 was targeting remaining areas of Inferred Mineral Resource category material along the 8km long Bald Hill – Simon’s Find – Fraser’s trend.
Drilling also targeted extensions to mineralisation outside of the currently defined mineralised envelopes at depth.
The 400m interval between Bald Hill and Bald Hill Southeast where 6 new holes encountered strong REE mineralisation has been classified as an Inferred Mineral Resource in this update.
All Yangibana project deposits outcrop at surface, with no overburden or waste stripping required and contain large coherent linear geological domains comprising high contents of Neodymium and Praseodymium rare earth elements.
The work undertaken to re-estimate the deposits was completed by David Princep of Gill Lane Consulting and incorporates all of the information and data that was used in the previous Mineral Resource estimate plus the 2021-2022 drill program data.
Hastings’ is currently focussed on updating Ore Reserves from the updated Mineral Resources targeting extensions to Yangibana’s proposed mine life of high-grade NdPr concentrate production beyond the current defined 15 years.
We are very pleased with the increase in the reported Mineral Resource of Yangibana to 30Mt,” Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Reid, said.
“The result reinforces Yangibana as a premier rare earths asset that is well funded and has already completed substantial early works activities on the ground. This new Mineral Resource estimate highlights the exciting extension potential we see at the project.
“There is a myriad of exploration targets spread right across the tenement package which will further add resource additions with the completion of further drilling.
“We look forward to delivering an updated Ore Reserve in the current quarter and further drilling thereafter in line with our development and growth plans for our rare earths business.”