Ionic has been granted a new exploration licence that expands the area of its Makuutu rare earths project in Uganda by 56sqkm to 300sqkm.

The company had applied for EL00257 after its Phase 3 rotary air blast drilling intersected thick clay intervals more than 2km north and west of the basin margin.

Ionic Rare Earths (ASX:IXR) says this indicates that rare earth element (REE) mineralisation could exist to the northwest outside of the current basin margin trend.

The new licence has been granted for three years and provides additional new greenfield exploration potential at Makuutu.

Makuutu REE project

Makuutu is one of the few ionic adsorption clay-hosted rare earths deposits, which are commonly considered to be amongst the cheapest and most readily accessible sources of heavy rare earths. It’s also located outside China with scale for economic development.

The company currently holds 51% of Makuutu though it will move to 60% on completion of the feasibility study before October 2022. It also has the pre-emptive right to acquire the remaining 40% of the project.

It recently completed the 432-hole Phase 4 drill program to convert more than 250 million tonnes of inferred resources into the higher confidence categories, which will in turn support completion of the feasibility study and submission of a mining licence application.

Makuutu currently has a global resource of 315Mt at 650 parts per million total rare earth oxides.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Ionic 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.