Diversified metals company ABx Group has hit paydirt with its latest rare earths exploration campaign in northern Tasmania with assays from an ongoing drill program more than tripling the initial mineral resource estimate of the company’s Deep Leads and Rubble Mound channel.
At 13.9 million tonnes and from a depth 3.8m to 10.8m the resource is now 350 per cent larger than the maiden mineral resource of 3.94 million tonnes that was reported in late November 2022. It now comprises 11.2 million tonnes inferred and 2.7 million tonnes indicated with a total rare earths in oxide (TREO) of 705 parts per million.
ABx’s share price popped 9 per cent on the news to an intraday high of 12 cents.
The company had anticipated a significant increase in the maiden resource, given the first figures were based on drilling of less than 10 per cent of the area. Moreover, it is likely there is more to come as the upgrade figure is the result of only the first 25 per cent of holes in the current drill program and from an area that represents only about 16 per cent of the 35 square kilometres prospective area the company has identified for resource expansion.
What is perhaps even more significant is the thickness of the rare earth zones the drilling has uncovered – in some cases going more than 30m thick and ending in mineralisation. Until now, the drill results had only uncovered zones running five-plus metres.
Thicker zones can be game-changers for rare earth explorers and ABx will be hoping for more intersections of greater than 20 metres from remaining drilling and strong assays in order to firm up the economics of the deposit.
Results are pending from 50 drill holes – all of which might mean another resource upgrade is on the cards in coming months.
ABx Group managing director and CEO Mark Cooksey said: “The substantial upgrade of the Mineral Resource at a higher cut-off grade is a phenomenal result and I am exceptionally pleased with the emerging deposit at Deep Leads – northern Tasmania’s first clay-hosted rare earths discovery.”
“Following these results, Deep Leads has been confirmed to have a strike length extending 7km with the mineralised area open in all directions. The area covered by resource drilling has increased from 2.35 sq km to 5.73 sq km, which is less than 17 per cent of the total 35 sq km prospective area.”
ABx is focusing on the rare earths needed in advanced technologies such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium which are used in so-called super magnets that are critical in “green energy” sectors such as electric vehicles, wind turbines and smart phones. The upgraded resource puts the level of permanent magnet rare earths at 171 parts per million.
In particular, the company is searching for ionic adsorption clay (IAC) mineralisation – the type of rare earths produced in China using a simple leaching process. Clay-hosted rare earths are an emerging exploration target, but very few deposits globally are IAC, the company notes with the vast majority still found in hard rock.
However, ABx says its work with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has now confirmed the Deep Loads-Rubble Mound mineralisation as IAC, meaning it is capable of delivering high rare earths using a benign, low-cost leaching process.
The company has several leases in a 52km wide rare earths province in the Apple Isle’s north and has conducted several campaigns along a 6.5km contiguous corridor between its deposits at Deep Leads and Rubble Mound to the east.
The latest 120-hole drilling program began ahead of schedule in January, aiming to extend the mineralised zone between the two. ABx has also applied for a new exploration licence covering the corridor between Deep Leads-Rubble Mound and its Wind Break discovery, which lies 16km north-east of Deep Leads. Another discovery, Portrush, sits 52km east of Deep Loads.
The company says several potential channels are already evident and its exploration is seeking to confirm the most prospective rare earths-rich channel that will connect through to Wind Break.
ABx Group, formerly known as Australian Bauxite, is charging ahead with three projects aimed at creating new sources of strategic minerals and chemicals: the rare earth project in Tasmania, a plan to build a plant to produce hydrogen fluoride and aluminium fluoride from recycled industrial waste and the mining and enhancing of bauxite resources for cement, aluminium and fertilisers. If its rare earths project keeps growing in size then that horse in the stable may well be off to the races.
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By Mark Irving
