Special Report: Red Mountain Mining will look to drill a series of rare earth element targets at its Mt Mansbridge project in WA in 2021, following a successful geophysical review of the area.

Red Mountain Mining (ASX:RMX) announced this morning that it had completed the geophysical review on the recently acquired Mt Mansbridge project, further defining a series of rare earth element (REE) targets.

RMX also identified a series of early stage radiometric targets for follow up at the 280km2 Kimberley project, which spans three exploration licences and a recently granted tenement.

The review of Mt Mansbridge comprised the merging and reprocessing of a series of historical geophysical datasets and government surveys.

RMX said the process had provided valuable information for further vectoring of existing REE targets, as well as identifying additional basement-hosted and unconformity-related heavy REE xenotime targets for follow up and drilling.

Previous exploration had already been undertaken at the tenement E80/5413, where an anomalous occurrence of yttrium and heavy lanthanide element dysprosium has already been documented.

Red Mountain Mt Mansbridge
Targets identified by Red Mountain at Mt Mansbridge. Pic: Company Supplied

 

The dysprosium-rich target, known as T4, is thought to occur within a strongly silicified siltstone unit and located near the southern unconformity on the tenement.

T1 and T2, located within the Killi Killi prospect, coincides with a broad REE soil anomaly defined by previous owner Quantum Resources in a ground sampling program and are coincident with historically reported xenotime mineralisation.

A REE soil anomaly is said to occur at the base of the unconformity and within the basement sandstone beds, which are seen to correlate radiometrically between the two targets.

Prospect area 3, spanning targets T3A and T3B, is considered prospective for both hydrothermal vein-hosted and unconformity-related REE mineralisation, and will require further follow up.

A staged program will now be carried out at Mt Mansbridge to further refine drill targets in preparation for maiden drilling after the wet season in 2021.

This is expected to include heritage clearance, and all required regulatory approvals.

 

A rare acquisition

Red Mountain’s acquisition of Mt Mansbridge was completed in October, in exchange for 50 million shares and a cash consideration payment of $100,000.

It added to RMX’s portfolio a heavy rare earths project, at a time when interest is high in the elements deemed critical for innovative technologies including EVs and electronics.

The company said at the time of acquisition it intended to fast track exploration and development to make the most of market conditions.

Mt Mansbridge spans a region southeast of Halls Creek, and is 40km from Northern Minerals’ (ASX:NTU)flagship Browns Range rare earths project.

Exploration has been undertaken at the project since the 1970s, mostly for uranium and gold, but RMX is excited by the presence of rare earth mineral xenotime at Killi Killi which has been overlooked until recently.

The Déjà vu prospect at Mt Mansbridge contains an ultramafic intrusion which the company says may be prospective for nickel and cobalt.

Red Mountain also holds gold projects in Western Australia and New South Wales, and a copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Red Mountain Mt Mansbridge
The location of Mt Mansbridge relative to other REE projects in the Kimberley. Pic: Supplied.

 

A market in need

Around 98% of the global supply of dysprosium comes out of China, leading to a market sensitive to trade wars and supply constraints.

Red Mountain said China was expected to implement export restrictions which would further reduce global supply of rare earths from December 1.

On November 23, the Shanghai Metals Market recorded the prices of Terbium to be US$1110/kg, and dysprosium to be US$342/kg.

“The recent advances in progressing the commercialisation of the Northern Minerals Browns Range heavy rare earth project have further validated the need to explore for heavy rare earths at Mt Mansbridge,” RMX said in a release to the ASX this morning.

“A similar geological setting, presence of xenotime and proximity to the Browns Range has increased the potential for REE discoveries at the Mt Mansbridge project area.”

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Red Mountain Mining, 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.