Lotus Resources Limited (ASX: LOT) has identified new areas of high-grade rare earths and rutile at its newly acquired Kayelekera uranium mine in Malawi.
The company has started its exploration with early-stage field work within the Mining Licences at Kayelekera and identified high-grade Rare Earth Elements (REE) and rutile-bearing granitoids at the Milenje Hills Prospect, approximately 2km north of the Kayelekera resource area.
The Milenje Hills prospect was discovered through ground surveys and mapping in 2014 during exploration for uranium mineralisation adjacent to the Kayelekera uranium resource.
Preliminary (and never released) surface and trench grab samples have returned significant REE and TiO2 (predominantly from rutile) results from granitoid gneiss float material and sub crop. Significant, hand samples returned grades up to 38% total rare earth oxides.
The mineralisation is interpreted to be associated with allanite-rich pegmatite dykes and associated fluid alteration within associated granitoids, which have been emplaced into the host Ubendian gneisses and granites.
Both the pegmatite material and granitoids exhibit high REE and TiO2 grades (up to 38% total REO).
Importantly, the rare-earth assemblage identified includes significant portions of the high-value critical rare earth oxides of Neodymium (Nd), Europium (Eu), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy), Yttrium (Y), and Praseodymium (Pr): averaging 2.9% across all samples and up to 8.5%.
Of this, Neodymium oxide makes up on average 73% of the endowment: averaging 2.1% across the samples, and up to 6.3%.
Lotus believes the Milenje Hills prospect contains potential for significant REE mineralisation and aims to test the prospect through systematic exploration including soil sampling, surface mapping and trenching in the upcoming dry season.
The Kayelekera uranium mine produced 10.9Mlb U3O8 from 2009 to 2014. More than $200M has been invested into its modern plant and infrastructure.
Lotus announced a 31% increase in the project’s uranium Mineral Resource in late March to 37.5Mlb of contained U3O8, up from 28.7Mlb U3O8 it previously reported.
