RareX Limited (ASX: REE) has signed a site access agreement with AngloGold Ashanti in relation to Exploration Licence E39/2504, part of the 100% owned Khaleesi Project in Western Australia.
The agreement includes the use of the Tropicana access road, facilitating efficient travel into the licence area for exploration activities and is the final step for the granting of the exploration licence and access to priority drilling targets.
The Khaleesi Project, located in the eastern Yilgarn region of Western Australia, spans 966 sq. km and is highly prospective for niobium and rare earth elements (REE) as well as gold and base metals. Historical data has revealed promising niobium targets, with enrichment up to 1,000ppm.
The Project area includes the Khaleesi Alkaline Intrusion Complex (KAIC), which features prominent geophysical targets with potential niobium-REE mineralising systems.
The Khaleesi Project provides an outstanding exploration opportunity for RareX, complementing the company’s engineering-stage, 100%-owned Cummins Range Rare Earths and Phosphate Project which is progressing through offtake and approvals.
Tenement E39/2504 sits immediately north of the Khaleesi Alkaline Intrusion Complex and 20km south of the Tropicana gold mine. The tenement traverses the eastern contact of the Canning Basin and is composed of granitic gneiss from the Northern Foreland Unit and the Tropicana zone. Magnetics suggests the geology is part of a large intrusion complex and RareX considers the tenement to be highly perspective for Nb, REE and Au.
Previous exploration has been focused on gold, copper and uranium by WMC, Anglo Gold Ashanti and BHP. The nearest prospect to the tenement is the Iceberg gold prospect 3km from the western boundary with intersections up to 14m at 1.4g/t Au.
Anglo, with EIS funding, completed diamond drilling and confirmed mineralisation is related to interpreted easterly dipping thrust and shear zones that have interacted with a mafic intrusion at depth. These deeper shear zones are likely surfacing to the west in tenement E39/2504. Collation of extensive surface geochemistry, air core drilling and geophysics will be reinterpretation from a gold and a critical minerals perspective in particular.
The agreement includes the use of the Tropicana access road, facilitating efficient travel into the licence area for exploration activities.
To fully unlock the Khaleesi Project area and have all tenure granted, the last remaining access agreement outstanding is with Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL).
The Deep Yellow agreement deals with a conservation management area that is part of the DYL Mulga Rocks project and requires regulatory inputs whilst RareX and DYL develop ways of working around that area. Good progress has been made and both parties are principally aligned on expected controls. The main focus now is on ensuring that the regulatory bodies are also supportive of the approach and a final review of subject matter experts and legal advisors is underway.
Programs of Work have been submitted at the beginning of September to both DEMIRS and Native Title holders to get clarity on any conditions for the planned field exploration activities. Once regulatory and native title approval for field work have been received, ground geophysical work will be completed to help with filling drilling targets for a programme to execute throughout Q1/Q2 CY25.
