Australian Rare Earths Limited (ASX: AR3) has successfully identified extensive, shallow, rare-earth mineralisation adjacent to the Red Tail and Yellow Tail resource deposits in its exploration activities on its 100% owned, flagship Koppamurra Project, located in South Australia and Victoria.
Resource Definition Drilling
Drilling has recently concluded on a second 10,000m drilling programme aimed at the delineation of additional JORC compliant mineral resources adjacent to and extending from the existing Red Tail and Yellow Tail maiden resource announced in April 2021.
The programme is a continuation of a similar size programme completed between October and December 2021, where promising assays were received, showing the potential for extensions to both Red Tail and Yellow Tail of shallow mineralised clay sediments with at least comparable Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) grades and thickness to existing resources, at ~6km along strike to the north.
A total of 1,158 drillholes and 11,480m were completed during the program which commenced on 2 February and concluded on 13 April 2022. The average depth for the drillholes was 9.9m. The program successfully identified extensive, shallow, rare-earth mineralisation adjacent to Red Tail and Yellow Tail, with thicknesses and grades in many instances exceeding those from within Red Tail and Yellow Tail.
The results from this drilling will support an updated mineral resource estimate due to be completed in June 2022. The areas recently drilled were at 100m x 100m spacing to support resource definition, and together with the areas already defined for Red Tail and Yellow Tail, forms the basis for an updated resource estimate planned for June 2022.
Assays have been received from 467 drill holes (KM0749 through KM1215). From these, 376 drill holes or 81% returned a weighted average grade of 769ppm TREO, using a 350ppm cut-off. Alternative cut-off grades indicate the following results:
• 70% of holes returned an average grade of 947ppm TREO at 500ppm cut-off, and
• 34% of holes returned an average grade of 1,556ppm TREO at 1,000ppm cut-off.
Assays will continue to be completed over the next six weeks to support an updated mineral resource estimate scheduled for June 2022.
Notable intersections are as follows:
• KM0884, 9m @ 908ppm TREO from 1m with 22.5% combined Neodymium/Praseodymium (Nd/Pr) and 2.4% Dysprosium (Dy)
• KM1198, 7m @ 1,001ppm TREO from 1m with 20.7% combined Nd/Pr and 2.7% Dy
• KM0976, 8m @ 1,072ppm TREO from 6m with 24.2% combined Nd/Pr and 2.4% Dy
• KM0762, 7m @ 872ppm TREO from 12m with 21.5% combined Nd/Pr and 2.8% Dy
• KM0895, 8m @ 566ppm TREO from 1m with 23.9% combined Nd/Pr and 2.7% Dy
• KM0879, 3m @ 1,610ppm TREO from 1m with 23.9% combined Nd/Pr and 1.9% Dy
• KM1079, 3m @ 1,428ppm TREO from 4m with 22.9% combined Nd/Pr and 2.0% Dy
The programme was undertaken predominantly on private land holdings where AR3 has established access agreements. AR3 continues to have positive engagement with local landowners across its exploration tenure and is working collaboratively to increase the area available for subsequent drilling programmes planned for 2022.
For further information please visit: https://ar3.com.au/
