Early promising indications have spurred Voltaic Strategic Resources to begin priority metallurgical work on the rare earth-enriched clays at its Neo Prospect, part of a Paddy’s Well Project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne.
The testwork literally seeks to sort the REE from the halloysite clay – a clear sign it is the highly extractable ionic adsorption variety commonly found in China’s world-dominating host of deposits.
Voltaic Chief Executive Michael Walshe said conducting the tests at such a nascent stage was a proactive approach to efficiently deploying capital as it continues to pursue several primary hard rock targets.
The key test will be to determine the ionic adsorption potential of the REE-enriched clays using ammonium sulphate as the ion-exchange medium under mildly acidic conditions,” he said.
“Most of the clay hosted REE discoveries made in Western Australia thus far, have not proven to be true ionic adsorption deposits, with the majority requiring aggressive low pH, highly acidic conditions to leach, which limits their potential economic viability.
“In less than 6 months, we have identified a large REE clay system at Neo along with several other primary hard rock targets, and metallurgical testing of the clay is the most logical next step.
“We have already identified the presence of halloysite within these clays which is encouraging for ionic adsorption deposit potential and look forward to commencing the work mid-April.”
While a true clay-hosted resource in Australia would be desirable, it is not the deposit type that has placed the nation as a rising competitor to China, with globally significant projects at Mt Weld, Browns Range, and Nolans Bore all hosted in hard rock.
And Western Australia’s Gascoyne is as likely looking as anywhere to play host to the subsequent major discovery.
So much so that the Western Australian Government has invested $220 million in the region to expand its capability in downstream processing of rare-earth minerals.
