The rare earths potential of Meeka’s Cascade project is no longer a hidden secret, with auger grades over a 250km2 area returning a cluster of samples grading up to 633ppm total rare earths oxides.
Grades as high as 633ppm TREO, 599ppm TREO and 545ppm TREO were found in auger samples from three close but discrete zones in the central area of the Cascade tenements.
They come from an historic drilling program covering around 1000km2 of the Meeka’s (ASX:MEK) northern and central tenure at Cascade, around 35km west of Esperance.
In addition to the results, Cascade also bears a strong cerium anomaly at surface, a common marker that often points to larger accumulation of REE mineralization in regolith hosted deposits.
That provides confidence that both the underlying geology is sound and the process of rare earths mobilisation and accumulation has occurred.
The auger samples were collected – incredibly – between 2010 and 2012 for gold exploration field work and have never before been reviewed for rare earths exploration.
But they provide further support for the concept the Cascade clays could contain a major discovery of the critical minerals after previously reported aircore results from the southern portion of the project, hitting results of up to 2,563ppm TREO including lanthanum, cerium and yttrium.
“These results provide further evidence of the prospectivity and potential scale of rare earth mineralisation in this emerging mineral province,” Meeka managing director Tim Davidson said.
“We control significant tenure at Cascade, in addition to our Circle Valley tenure (35km to the northeast) where drilling shows a thick clay horizon, enriched in REE, blanketing the tenement.
“We intend to commence field work at Cascade in the second half of this year, initially drilling at the central area targeting the clay horizon below the 250km2 cerium surface anomaly and high-grade REE auger samples.”
Drilling on the cards
These areas will be a key target for exploration drilling at Cascade in the second half of 2022.
Given the high grade nature and scale of the central area the prospective regolith horizon will be a major focus.
The rare earths potential of Meeka’s projects, also uncovered at nearby Circle Valley, come on top of its high-quality portfolio of gold assets.
They include Circle Valley, where assay results in February returned 20m at 4.66g/t gold from 12m, and of course the Murchison gold project, including the historic and high grade Andy Well gold mine, where Meeka controls over 1Moz of gold resources.
This article was developed in collaboration with Meeka Gold, 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.