• Record intersection of 48m @ 3,025ppm TREO from Stage 1 drilling at Venture’s Jupiter prospect in WA
  • This is understood to be the highest grade clay-hosted REE intersection ever for an Australian project
  • High grades of valuable magnetic rare earths counted
  • Assays pending on remaining 57 holes

 

Special Report: If you thought there wasn’t a clay-hosted rare earths deposit in WA’s Mid West, well – you’d be wrong. Venture Minerals has received its first batch of assay results from Stage 1 resource definition drilling at the Jupiter REE prospect, hitting a record 48m @ 3,025ppm in total rare earth oxides (TREO).

The Jupiter prospect – part of Venture Minerals (ASX:VMS) overall Brothers project – is spaced over 40km2 and has the potential to host REEs of significant scale and grade close to Lynas Rare Earths’ (ASX: LYC) Mt Weld rare earths concentrator and Iluka Resources’ (ASX: ILU) Eneabba refinery currently in development.

VMS recently completed 81 holes totalling 5,074m on a 1,000m by 500m spaced pattern in this first stage resource program.

Most holes returning broad consistent zones of clay via portable XRF, confirming the presence of REE mineralisation.

 

Rare earths on Jupiter

The first batch of Stage 1 assays have returned consistent high-grade zones of 20-30m widths with >2,000ppm TREO in 23/24 (96%) of the holes at the Jupiter prospect, part of the Brothers REE project in WA’s Mid West.

Some of the best numbers seen at Jupiter show very high-grade results in holes BRRC031 and BRRC074 with up to 10,266ppm and 20,538ppm TREO respectively.

The same lot of assays importantly confirm high values of magnet rare earth oxides (MREO) in TREO of up to:

  • 3,288 ppm Nd2O3 (Neodymium)
  • 788 ppm Pr6O11 (Praseodymium)
  • 674 ppm Dy2O3 (Dysprosium)
  • 101 ppm Tb2O3 (Terbium)

The headline result of 48m @ 3,025ppm TREO in BRRC71 is understood to be the highest grade clay-hosted REE intersection ever recorded for an Australian project.

 

Venture Minerals ASX VMS
Recent drill holes at the Jupiter prospect. Pic: Supplied (VMS)

 

VMS managing director Andrew Radonjic says the record-breaking, ultra-high grade REE clay results at Jupiter places the company well above its peers in terms of both grade and scale.

“What’s incredible is that these results are not isolated. They confirm consistent grades over 2,000 ppm TREO in broad widths of 20-30 meters in 96% of the holes and that is sitting within zones of around 60 m over 1,000 ppm TREO,” Radonjic says.

 

More to come

Further drill results are pending for the company’s maiden resource drill program at Jupiter.

“This drilling is widely spaced and down the track we will be working on infill drilling with the potential to uncover more impressive grades,” Radonjic says.

“Most drilling will be shallow aircore and RC, so it’s highly cost-effective.

“Keep in mind that these results cover a small area of our enormous, 40km2 target and you can certainly understand that Jupiter is shaping up to be an incredibly impressive project.”

 

 

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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