Halleck Creek is the project that keeps delivering good news for American Rare Earths with new drilling data indicating it’s on track for a significant maiden JORC Resource early next year.

American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR) latest phase of drilling closely follows the return of outstanding results of the maiden core drilling program completed in July. These led to Halleck Creek’s exploration target more than tripling to a globally significant 1.01-1.27 billion tonnes of rare earth mineralised rocks. The eye-popping figure means Halleck Creek could be one of the largest rare earths projects in North America with potential to be a major supplier of minerals essential for the clean energy transition.

Latest drilling at the Wyoming project is showing consistent rare earth mineralisation from surface to the current drill depth of 150m. This is up 33% on previous drill depths and ARR now plans to extend several drill holes to 200m to see if the mineralisation continues.

So far ARR has completed 14 reverse circulation (RC) holes for a total of 2,125m in Red Mountain, one of the three areas of the project. Three drill holes remain in this project area then ARR is set to drill a planned 26 RC holes at the Overton Mountain area.

The company is now eagerly anticipating assay results from the approximately 1,400 core samples that have been collected and shipped for analysis.

The maiden drill program indicated total rare earth oxide (TREO) grades ranging between 2,245 ppm and 2,807 ppm within the one billion-plus tonnes of rare earth mineralised rocks, including the high-value magnet minerals Neodymium, and Praseodymium (NdPr).

Unlike many rare earths projects which are plagued by radioactive penalty elements, Halleck Creek has near-negligible uranium and thorium, as does ore from ARR’s other key project La Paz.

At current drilling rates ARR hopes to conclude drilling in early December 2022 and release Halleck Creek’s maiden JORC resource in Q1 of calendar 2023.

MD and CEO Chris Gibbs said: “We are on track to define a significant JORC Resource for this exciting project. These results, although preliminary in nature are consistent with the core drilling conducted earlier this year.

“Feedback from our geologists confirm our exploration target potential and reinforces our strong view that Halleck Creek has potential to be one of the largest, rare-earth projects in the United States.”

The latest announcement from ARR comes hot on the heels of its Quarterly Report showing its progress towards its vision of becoming a major supplier of critical minerals for North America.

In addition to the 328% lift to the Halleck Creek exploration target, assay results from the new Bluegrass area indicated consistent rare earth mineralisation throughout the expanded project area. From La Paz, more metallurgical test work results demonstrated the ore responds well to conventional processing technology, thereby reducing operating and capital costs.

The Aussie company also added another leading US R&D organisation to its list of collaborators in the race for a North American critical minerals supply chain.

And with a $14m institutional placement completed ARR is well placed to pursue its exploration and development goals.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with American Rare Earths, 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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