VHM has claimed a major discovery to add to Goschen, with drill results indicating a series of high-grade strandline deposits 22 kilometres to the north of the proposed treatment plant and established rare earth resource – confirming a Critical Mineral Province stretching beyond 55 kilometres of strike in northwest Victoria.
Significant values of rare earth, zircon, and titanium minerals rutile and leucoxene were returned from the Nowie Prospect Area, with zones of valuable heavy minerals coming up to two times greater than the highest-grade area at Goschen.
Combined with geophysics, it supports a near-surface target up to 11 kilometres long and 3km wide with multiple high-grade zones ripe for exploration.
VHM Managing Director Graham Howard said they were excellent results from an initial drilling program, firmly supporting the company’s plans to continue developing a new Critical Minerals Province in Victoria.
The Goschen Project has already illustrated it is a highly economic project and the higher grades at Nowie are a welcome addition to the Company’s rare earths and mineral sands project portfolio,” Mr Howard said.
“We anticipate further resource definition work at Nowie will extend the scale of this prospect during the second half of 2023 and we look forward to releasing future results. Having a third potential project option to consider opens several possibilities for the Company that we will now introduce to discussions with interested offtake partners and potential strategic investors,” he added.
Pathway to production
VHM was established with the purpose of developing Goschen, considered its world class flagship and one awarded Major Project Status by the Australian Government, with 87 per cent of the project’s basket value derived from the high value rare earths critical for EV motors and wind turbines.
With over 413 thousand tonnes of total rare earth oxide and an accompanying 629Mt mineral sands resource already established, Goschen is on the pathway to development with a refreshed DFS already showing robust economics.
VHM saw plenty of room to grow at its flagship, and now has poof in the drilling for a new high-grade ore body, and exploration will soon be following up on a second major strandline system to the west of current drilling.
