Stage 2 drilling has lifted off at Venture’s Jupiter REE project. Pic via Getty Images.
Mining
Special Report: With consistent high-grade REE numbers pouring in from Stage 1 drilling at the Jupiter prospect, Venture Minerals has now committed to an extensive 300-hole Stage 2 program which could culminate in delivery of a maiden resource estimate.
Jupiter is part of Venture Minerals’ (ASX:VMS) Brothers REE project and located very close to Lynas Rare Earths’ (ASX:LYC) Mt Weld concentrator and Iluka Resources’ (ASX:ILU) Eneabba refinery currently in development – that nearology gives it a big boost in terms of development metrics.
The Australian Government is heavily backing Iluka’s REE refiner, which is due to start production in 2025, receiving a $1.05 billion non-recourse loan as part of a risk-sharing arrangement with a $200 million cost overrun facility to boot, as part of an overall $2 billion Critical Minerals Facility.
VMS has now kicked off a massive 300-hole aircore drill program that will bring in the drill density across the 40km2 Jupiter target to a 500m by 250m spacing to obtain the data necessary for a planned maiden resource estimate (MRE).
Jupiter has so far demonstrated very high-grade rare earths content, including an Australian record clay-hosted intersection of 48m @ 3,025ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) during Stage 1 drilling.
Assays from 46 of the 51 drill holes have been received from the Stage 1 drill program, returning >1,000ppm TREO grades consistent with the explorer’s previously announced drilling program results from the project.
Drilling has also consistently delivered high-grade zones of >2,000ppm TREO over 20-30m widths and crazily high intercepts up to 13,906ppm and 20,538ppm TREO.
What makes these numbers even more exceptional are the high concentrations of valuable magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO) such as neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr) within the TREO averaging 23% in intersections >1,000ppm.
The 300 aircore holes are expected to take 6-8 weeks and several batches will be submitted as the program runs.
In the meantime, a final batch of assays from the last 30 holes of the Stage 1 drill program are expected shortly and metallurgical test work is progressing in the lead-up to the MRE.
“With the recent record drill results delivered by the first two batches of assays from the Stage 1 resource definition drill program at Jupiter, the company has committed to an extensive 300 drillhole Stage 2 program to accelerate towards delivering the much-anticipated maiden resource,” VMS managing director Andrew Radonjic says.
“The highlights to date clearly demonstrate that Jupiter is emerging as a major rare earths discovery in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction of WA between Lynas’ existing plant and Iluka’s planned REE processing facilities.
“Shareholders should expect plenty of news flow in the following weeks with assays from the final batch of the Stage 1 program due shortly and assays from the several batches of samples that will be submitted over the course of this current drill program.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Venture Minerals, 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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