Red Mountain Mining Limited (ASX:RMX) has successfully conducted a fixed wing airborne radiometric survey at its 100% owned Mt Mansbridge Heavy Rare Earth Project in Western Australia.
Notwithstanding the current season, the circa 800km line survey was carried out under good weather conditions with constant elevation and an average altitude of circa 100 feet which augers well for the acquisition of high-quality data.
The intent of the programme is to further identify unconformity type rare earths targets at Mt Mansbridge which is interpreted to be similar to that at Northern Minerals Limited (ASX: NTU) Dazzler and Iceman heavy rare earth deposits.
In xenotime rare earth deposits, radiometric data has proven to be valuable in vectoring in on heavy rare earth targets.
At Mt Mansbridge, rim flying of the unconformity has resulted in a relatively constant flying height compared to historical surveys flown perpendicular to the unconformity where a significant variation in topography can occur at the contact between the sandstone and underlying metamorphic rocks.
Processing and ratioing of the airborne radiometric data will allow the company to further identify and delineate additional basement hosted and unconformity-related heavy rare earth element xenotime targets for follow up and drilling at Mt Mansbridge. Interpretation and processing of the data will be undertaken in the coming weeks.
Located in the Kimberly region of Western Australia, the Mt Mansbridge project area is approximately 130 km south east of the township of Halls Creek and consists of three contiguous granted exploration licenses E80/5111, E80/5229 and E80/5413 which combined cover a total area of 280 sq. km.
The project area has been subject to exploration activities since the 1970’s, primarily for uranium, gold and diamonds which were all unsuccessful. The presence of the REE mineral xenotime in the Killi Killi Prospect has been overlooked and RMX now see the opportunity to capitalise on this and determine whether there is an economically viable concentration of REE’s.
Also, within the project area is the Déjà vu Prospect that contains an ultramafic intrusion which RMX intends to assess from the perspective of nickel-cobalt prospectivity.
In response to the security of REE supply and global demand for battery minerals due to the rapid growth in lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles, Red Mountain Mining is looking to fast track exploration and development of the Mt Mansbridge Project which is prospective for Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREE) and nickel-cobalt.
