Aussie company American Rare Earths has just taken a giant step towards becoming a major player in the United States’ race to develop its own critical minerals supply chain.
The Maiden JORC Resource of 1.43 billion tonnes announced today for Halleck Creek demonstrates the project has the potential to become a world class deposit with strategic importance to the US.
The total figure came in above expectations for American Rare Earths (ASX: ARR) in comparison with already globally significant previous exploration targets.
And there’s still a lot of upside potential given a whopping 75% of the district is yet to be drilled and the deposit remains open at depth.
The total resource area, 100% held and operated by ARR, is a huge 3,304ha (8,165 acres), meaning this Maiden JORC Resource has the potential to expand with future exploration campaigns.
Within the +1Bt JORC Resource is an estimated 4.73 million tonnes of Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) with about 24% of that high value magnet rare earth elements essential for the clean energy transition, modern communication and national security.
The average grade of those sought-after magnet metals, Neodymium and Praseodymium (NdPr), is 734 ppm, while the average TREO grade is 3,309 ppm.
The deposit extends from surface with consistent grades to at least 150m, which makes it ideal for large scale, low-cost open pit mining.
Unusually for a rare earths project, Halleck Creek – like ARR’s La Paz in Arizona – has extremely low levels of penalty elements thorium and uranium, enabling it to be much more environmentally sensitive than many comparable projects.
The almost negligible levels of radioactive elements also make the Australian company’s ore attractive to its top-tier US partners involved in Government supported R&D to develop a domestic critical minerals supply chain.
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Chris Gibbs said: “These results confirm the Company has a strategically significant rare earth asset critically, in the United States, which should enable the largest economy in the world to reduce its dependence on China or other imported rare earths.
“Global magnetic rare earth oxide consumption is forecast to more than treble by 2035. The US government has made no secret that it is seeking to onshore supply of all critical materials for supply chain and national security purposes. There is only one producing rare earth mine within the USA, the Mountain Pass mine in California. The USA needs a number of these mines to secure onshore supply of rare earths and we believe Halleck Creek is part of the future solution.
“With a maiden JORC Resource estimate of 1.43 billion tonnes this project is strategically significant, containing over 4.73 million tonnes of rare earth oxides. With only a quarter of the licence area drilled and remaining open at depth, the upside potential is significant. The Halleck Creek project is shaping up to be a strategic asset for the USA to supply rare earths for future generations”.
ARR is already well under way with metallurgical and mineralogical test work, which shows that a simple, less costly and more environmentally sensitive process can produce a rare earth concentrate and maximise the recovery of the project’s high-value magnet rare earth elements.
It’s also looking ahead to doing more exploration in the newly claimed areas, giving the company contiguous control of federal claims and state mining leases over seven discrete areas across 8kmx8km
Meanwhile in Arizona the company is advancing its La Paz project, which has a current JORC Resource estimate of 170MT, with drilling targeting ~742-928MT of rare earths mineralised rocks to establish a JORC resource for the SW area.
This article was developed in collaboration with American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR), a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.