RareX drills are painting a rosy picture of Cummins Range primary rare earths

RareX has received a belated Christmas present with drilling returning high-grade hits that further extend primary mineralisation at its Cummins Range project.

Assays from a further seven holes drilled before Christmas returned multiple intercepts above the rare earths resource grade such as:

5m at 2% total rare earth oxides (TREO) with 0.4% neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) and 0.1% niobium, and 50 grams per tonne (g/t) silver including 3m at 6% TREO with 1% NdPr and 0.1% niobium, and 25g/t silver; and
26m at 2.3% TREO with 0.5% NdPr and 0.3% niobium including 2.8m at 6.6% TREO with 1.2% NdPr and 0.8% niobium.

RareX (ASX:REE) noted that the results not only confirmed the potential to upgrade and expand the current resource of 18.8Mt grading 1.15% TREO + 0.14% niobium, it also extended the mineralisation in the primary zone beyond 200m down-dip.

The company adds that the success of drill hole CDX0013 (26m at 2.3% TREO), which was drilled 50m west of CDX0012 and is thus the westernmost hole drilled at the best orientation to test the deposit, suggests that the primary mineralisation remains open to the northwest.

As a bit of a bonus, two of the holes contained exceptional silver grades of up to 138g/t silver. The nature of this unexpected mineralisation is under investigation.

“We are really excited to have picked up where we left off in 2021 with some further outstanding high-grade results which have further reinforced the potential of the primary zone at Cummins Range,” managing director Jeremy Robinson said.

“The results reported in this announcement have not only extended the mineralisation beyond 200m down-dip, they have also confirmed the presence of stacked mineralised zones – which bodes well for the potential to increase the tonnage as we drill the mineralisation down-dip and along strike.

“The primary zone continues to shape up as a game-changer for Cummins Range, and we are looking forward to receiving the balance of the assays from the 2021 drilling program and mapping out our development and growth strategy for this high-quality deposit in 2022.”

Assays are pending for a further six diamond holes where a number of visually strong intercepts were observed downdip of the recently reported results.

Cummins Range project

The Cummins Range project in Western Australia’s Kimberley region has the potential to be a significant producer of rare earths, demand of which continues to increase as the world embraces electrification and net zero emissions.

This is thanks to several reasons such as the primary rare earth mineral being monazite, which is the best known and processed rare earth mineral globally, and mineralisation being hosted in the weathered portion of the underlying carbonatite intrusion, which could potentially lead to a very cheap open pit mining scenario.

More recent work has highlighted a potential high-grade zone of primary mineralisation that could add substantially to the project’s existing resources.

This article was developed in collaboration with RareX, 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.