High grades of magnetic rare earths have been discovered at Rio Negro. Pic via Getty Images.
Equinox starts uncovering Rio Negro’s true REE identity
Mining
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- Equinox hits high-grade REEs up to 6085ppm in clay from maiden augur drilling at Rio Negro prospect
- These results confirm high grade clay mineralisation at Rio Negro and importantly are in line with other high-grade clay intercepts in the region.
- 27 RC holes will follow up and dig deeper into the monazite sand and hard rock targets
Special Report: Initial results from maiden auger drilling at Equinox Resources’ Rio Negro prospect in Bahia, Brazil, have turned in up to 6085ppm TREO in clays.
Rio Negro is part of Equinox Resources’ (ASX:EQN) huge 1801km2 Campo Grande REE project in Brazil’s emerging world-class Rocha da Rocha REE district.
It also owns 974.98km2 of prospective ground at the Mata de Corda project within the Alto Paranaíba Alkaline province in Minas Gerais State, an early-stage ionic-clay-hosted rare earth opportunity.
1144m of drilling was completed as part of Phase I scout auger drilling, comprising 69 auger drill holes across 916m and three exploratory RC holes for 228m, designed to identify monazite sand below 10m and high-grade rare earth clay pockets at depth to delineate the host high-grade hard rock.
Significant hits included:
- 4.1m at 2766ppm TREO from 7.5m including a 0.5m intercept at 6084ppm TREO (with 22% MREO) from 7.5m at hole CG-AD24-040
- 37m at 1884ppm TREO from surface at hole CG-RC24-001
- and 9m at 2510ppm TREO from 6m including a 2m intercept at 3175ppm TREO from 6m at hole CG-AD24-24.
Assays are pending for a further 24 holes for 338m.
“The initial scout auger drilling from our first ever program at the Rio Negro prospect was designed to scope the potential for high-grade clay and also hard-rock rare earth mineralisation,” EQN MD Zac Komur says.
“These results confirm high-grade clay mineralisation at Rio Negro and importantly are in line with other high-grade clay intercepts in the region that in some cases has led to ultra high-grade discoveries in hard rock.”
EQN has only drilled three RC holes so far and is gearing up to push that tally up to 30 with Phase II drilling across 4050m to target monazite sand and host hard rock below the high-grade clay intercept areas.
The targets are ~3km away from Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX:BRE) Sulista discovery, which returned up to 22.4% TREO, with other targets located ~2km away from BRE’s Pele project that have returned high-grade assays up to 10.4% TREO.
Next steps
An RC drill rig is being mobilised to drill key targets identified from the scout campaign, with an aim to reach and test monazite sand and hard rock host that the auger drill could not penetrate.
“Concurrently, we are also progressing with targets across Jaguaquara and Jitauna blocks at the Campo-Grande project, together with additional target blocks identified at our Mata da Corda project,” said EQN’s MD.
“This comprehensive exploration strategy is a pivotal step forward, and we are confident that further drilling will provide deeper insights.
“We have sufficient funding to support our exploration campaigns and are encouraged for exciting developments ahead.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Equinox Resources, 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.
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