Minerals explorer Godolphin Resources has received almost $600,000 in exploration tax credits for this financial year, following a successful application to the Australian Federal Government’s Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) program.
The company says the credits will support exploration across its enviable landholding in the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW, where it this month increased its rare earths resource grade by 126 per cent at its Narraburra project.
The JMEI program is an initiative designed to encourage investment in companies carrying out exploration work in Australia, by allowing them to generate tax credits by opting to give up a portion of losses generated by exploration expenditure. The credits may then be distributed to eligible investors.
The tax credit boost comes on the back of the company receiving firm commitments earlier this month to raise $715,000 with the issue of about 17 million new fully-paid ordinary shares at an issue price of 4.2 cents each.
Godolphin Resources managing director Jeneta Owens said: “Following the recent placement, Godolphin is now well positioned to continue its exploration initiatives across its highly-prospective suite of rare earths, gold and copper projects. The Company has a number near term developments planned and looks forward to updating shareholder as these materialise in the coming weeks.”
The company’s exploration in the Lachlan Fold Belt, a premier bulk-tonnage copper–gold province stretching from Bourke in the north-west to past Canberra in the south-east, will focus on both copper-gold and rare earths.
The majority of its exploration licences are sandwiched between Newcrest Mining’s Cadia Valley Ridgeway copper-gold mine, the second biggest open-cut mine in Australia after Kalgoorlie’s famed Super Pit, and Alkane’s Boda-Kaiser copper-gold system that has a total inventory of 7.3 million ounces of gold and 1.4 million tonnes of copper.
The pivot into rare earths at the Narraburra project paid off for Godolphin earlier this year, with impressive results from 31 diamond drill holes resulting in a huge 126 per cent increase to the maiden resource grade when compared to JORC 2004 estimates.
The updated resource estimate sits at 94.4 million tonnes at 1079 parts per million total rare earths oxide (TREO), with 50 per cent of the resource now defined in the indicated category. The swelled resource also shows a 30 per cent increase in tonnage compared to the previous estimate and includes a high-grade core of 20 million tonnes at 1079ppm TREO using a 600ppm cut-off.
Management says the considerable increase in grade and size, in addition to mineralisation remaining open in all directions, highlights Narraburra’s world-class potential.
An expedited and expanded metallurgical testwork program will start in the current quarter and is expected to provide the company with a better understanding of Narraburra’s rare earths and metal composition, opening potential processing pathways and leading into the start of scoping studies later this year.
With the Federal Government listing Narraburra as a critical minerals project and Godolphin’s pockets full of cash, the NSW rare earths industry may just have a new major player.
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By Andrew Duffy
