Indiana is in the saddle and ready to rock, after assaying revealed a significant extension to the REE zone that it’s looking to drill. Pic via Getty Images.
Mining
Indiana is champing at the bit to start a targeted rare earths drill program at its Central Gawler project after re-assaying earlier work extended the mineralisation strike to over 4.5km.
This follows the re-assaying of 498 samples from 36 aircore holes which confirmed that thick REE mineralisation is present within the drilled area within an overall 10km zone identified along the target Lake Labyrinth Shear Zone. Said mineralisation remains open in all directions.
High-grade results such as 37m grading 1,687 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) including 4m at 7,039ppm TREO and 2,003ppm of valuable magnet rare earth oxides (MREO) from 52m are certainly a significant lure for the company.
Indiana Resources (ASX:IDA) still has 558 assays pending from a further 36 aircore holes.
“We are truly excited by these latest high grade assay results which confirm extensive, thick zones of REE mineralisation within our Central Gawler Project – encouragingly this includes a significant proportion of high-value magnet REEs,” technical director Felicity Repacholi-Muir said.
“An exciting opportunity for critical minerals within the Project is clearly emerging and we look forward to confirming the extent of the mineralisation with a targeted REE drilling program currently being planned.
“Indiana is moving quickly to capitalise on this opportunity, and we have also started investigations on the most appropriate mineralogical and metallurgical testwork to characterise the style of REE mineralisation and determine the processes available to maximise the recovery of the REEs from the host material.”
Preliminary assessment of the historical geological logging indicates that the REE mineralisation generally occurs between 20 and 50 metres vertical depth with the host lithology.
Samples assayed to date have returned highly positive REE results include a significant percentage of high-value MREOs – primarily neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium.
Data is currently being reviewed to better characterise the mineralogy of the REE mineralisation and to gain further understanding of the vertical zonation and clay hosts as well as the areal extent of the REE mineralisation discovered to date.
Metallurgical testwork to determine the optimal extraction options to produce a commercial product will be started following receipt of the outstanding assays.
Separately, the company is also awaiting gold assay results from reverse circulation drilling completed during August at the Minos gold prospect.
This article was developed in collaboration with Indiana 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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