Lindian Resources‘ second deep drill hole into Kangankunde has returned a thousand metre intercept averaging 2.6 per cent Total Rare Earth Oxide and ending in high grade mineralisation at its rare earth project in Malawi.
The intercept extends around 700 metres beneath the established 261Mt @ 2.19% TREO resource at Kangankunde, and comes in alongside a 325m @ 2.49% TREO strike from shallower drilling which indicated mineralisation extends further west than expected.
The first deep hole struck 854m at 2.73 per cent TREO and the pair will form the basis to an upcoming Exploration Target after demonstrating the impressive scale potential of a mineralised carbonatite system remaining open in all directions.
Lindian Executive Chairman Asimwe Kabunga said the growing scale had already attracted the interest of a number of potential offtake partners from its Stage 1 operations.
While we continue to advance discussions with a number of parties our efforts are now firmly on mine development works with an update on progress due in the near future,” Mr Kabunga said.
Whilst some follow up exploration is warranted at Kangankunde, which we will do in parallel with mine development works, our immediate focus is infill drilling to support the first stage of mine development. We are well into this workstream and will report on results as we update shareholders on mine development.”
Lindian Chief Executive Alistair Stephens added that the results built on both the potential scale and quality of mineralisation.
“These assays from the second deep drill hole reinforce all of Kangankunde’s key characteristics – high grade mineralisation consistent across very thick intercepts, a favourable NdPr ratio and a non-radioactive concentrate for transportation,” Mr Stephens said.
“A standout from this hole is the very high-grade mineralisation at depth, and the fact that the hole ended
at 1,000 metres in mineralisation exceeding 3.2% TREO,” he said.
Forward plan
A Phase 3 infill drilling campaign has already begun to define a portion of the current resource as indicated for feasibility studies as Lindian move towards mining its globally significant resource.
An update on Stage One Project workstreams is pending, and the company will continue to focus on locking in off-take and constructing the plant with a view to first production next year.
Lindian pulled in its first resource from just over 10 months and 14,000 metres of drilling and expect to be able to keep building up an asset dubbed “The King” on its march to milestone production.
