Maiden drill assays imminent as Zinc of Ireland targets rare earths riches at Cascade

Zinc of Ireland’s maiden drilling program at Cascade is targeting historical rare earths (REE) anomalism
This historical anomalism was identified by AngloGold Ashanti in 2010
The project represents an exciting REE exploration entry for ZMI

Special Report: Shallow auger drilling across large rare earths targets at Zinc of Ireland’s Cascade project is now in the home stretch as the company nears completion of its maiden drill program.

Zinc of Ireland’s (ASX:ZMI) Cascade project ~70km northwest of Esperance, WA covers significant areas of total rare earth oxide (TREO) enrichment as defined by shallow auger drill traversing by Anglo Gold Ashanti in 2010.

That auger drilling campaign encountered near surface enrichment in rare earths (REEs) with widespread anomalism up to 1031ppm TREO.

Results by AngloGold Ashanti on tenement E74/691 show a large coherent 6km by 3km anomaly while E74/690 hosts similarly anomalous TREO enrichment along a 5km road traverse.

Both areas represent encouraging targets for the discovery of deeper mineralisation and are the subject of drilling testing.

AngloGold only sampled to a maximum depth of ~3m, indicating that the TREO auger anomalies generated may under-represent potential underlying REE mineralisation.

ZMI is now setting out to determine saprolite and upper bedrock REE levels with a low-cost drill program.

Zinc of Ireland ASX ZMI — Auger drilling at the Cascade project. Pic: Zinc of Ireland

The current program includes 1,000m – 2,000m of drilling from widely spaced shallow auger holes drilled from a light vehicle.

“Cascade represents an exciting REE exploration entry for us which we believe complements our Irish and Manitoban assets well,” ZMI chairman Peter Huljich says.

“The exploration principle we are applying is simple and low cost and we are implementing it over high-tenor, large REE targets.

“It is our good fortune that these targets were historically identified but passed over by previous explorers whose focus at that time was on the discovery of gold,” he says.

“It also helps that we are in an area of the state where peer ASX listed juniors have had significant success.

“We look forward to receiving our first sample analyses from Cascade and are confident that these may provide the company with another option for short term growth.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Zinc of Ireland, 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.