Voltaic Resources’ phase one drilling has confirmed its Neo Prospect is host to multiple stacked zones of rare earth mineralisation at the Paddy’s Well Project, hosted in a Gascoyne Province undergoing a flurry of rare earth exploration success in Western Australia.
The new zones were validated from within shallow clay cover, identified from near the surface and holding significant intervals up to 30 metres actual width within a six by two square kilometre target corridor, with several zones exceeding 1000ppm TREO spotted at the surface on all lines completed to date.
Early pXRF results from the first five RB holes of the 28-hole program identified the widespread zones, remaining open at depth along strike and boasting a peak assay of 9000ppm total rare earth oxide.
Voltaic Chief Executive Michael Walshe said it was a spurring return from the first phase of drilling.
Each of the first five RB drill holes processed has at least four REE stacked zones with potential for significant intercept width increase,” he said.
“Soil pXRF surveys above 500ppm close to the surface is a significant REE anomaly compared with early soil pXRF analysis at similar clay projects in the region and indicate that the size of the mineralised strike is at least 6km x 2km creating a significant regional-scale opportunity for the company,” he said.
Walshe noted that identifying REE-bearing phosphate minerals commonly associated with carbonatite deposits was another encouraging early development in Voltaic’s journey for rare earth discovery.
“Monazite and rhabdophane are found at Hastings (ASX:HAS) Yangibana Project, which is currently under construction ~100km northeast of Paddy’s Well, at Lynas’ Mt Weld carbonatite as well as Dreadnought Resources’ Yin ferrocarbonatite deposit,” he said.
