Venture Minerals’ maiden drilling program at the Greater Brothers project (Brothers including Iron Duke) in WA has confirmed high-grade clay hosted Rare Earth Elements (REE) mineralisation.

The reconnaissance aircore (AC) drilling returned several intersections of up 15 metres at +2,000ppm Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) within broader zones of up to 45 metres at ~1,500ppm TREO throughout an extensive area.

The results include:

  • 45m at 1,455ppm TREO from 70m to end of hole, including 15m at 2,105ppm TREO from 80m (BRAC009);
  • 19m at 1,931ppm TREO from 55m to end of hole, including 5m at 3,380ppm TREO from 60m (BRAC024);
  • 30m at 1,982ppm TREO from 35m to end of hole, including 15m at 2,672ppm TREO from 40m (BRAC036);
  • 40m at 1,832ppm TREO from 25m to end of hole, including 10m at 2,725ppm TREO from 30m (BRAC037); and
  • 42m at 1,619ppm TREO from 5m to end of hole, including 10m at 2,595ppm TREO from 30m (BRAC039).

Venture Minerals (ASX:VMS) says the thickness and high-grade nature of the above results clearly demonstrates, even at this early stage, the significant potential for the project to host a world class, clay hosted REE deposit.

 

Clay-hosted REE costs less to mine and process

“Our maiden drilling program at Brothers has delivered a potential world class clay hosted REE discovery of a significant scale with thicker and higher-grade results than the vast majority of our peers in Australia,” Venture MD Andrew Radonjic said.

“The Greater Brothers project is well located in regional Western Australia with excellent access to infrastructure, and therefore presents an exciting development opportunity for the company.

“Clay hosted REE deposits continue to be the preferred type of REE mineralisation to discover, being lower cost to mine and process and producing more of the sort after high-value magnet REE such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, which are essential for making high strength permanent magnets critical to EV and wind turbine efficiency.

“Venture looks forward to getting back onto the ground as soon as possible to fulfil the potential of the Greater Brothers discovery and deliver further value to its shareholders.’’

 

Follow-up drilling a priority

The quality of the assay results from this drill program has made a follow-up drilling program a priority for the company, as it pushes towards determining the magnitude of this new high grade REE discovery, with approvals and planning underway.

So far, the reconnaissance drilling has tested approximately 20% (220 km2) of the project area with results to date delivering a 90% strike rate, with almost every hole containing significant widths of REE mineralisation.

With similar bedrock geology interpreted in the areas already drilled to those areas without drilling, the potential remains for significantly increasing the scale of the current mineralised area.

In addition to more drilling, the next stage of work will also include metallurgical testwork to determine how much of the clay-hosted mineralisation is ionic based and can therefore be recovered using current processing techniques.

The company has also pegged a further 75 km2 tenement package prospective for clay hosted REE mineralisation adjacent to the Brothers project, bringing the total project area up to 1,165 km2 of prospective REE tenure.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Venture Minerals Limited, 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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