Attraction of magnet rare earths prompts Meeka change

A chance discovery at one of its in-demand rare earth elements projects – including extremely valuable rare earths – has prompted a name change at WA explorer Meeka Gold.

Its new name is Meeka Metals.

The name change was unanimously agreed at a General Meeting of shareholders.

Meeka Metals Managing Director and CEO, Tim Davidson said: “The company still sees huge opportunities in the gold space – in fact, we’re drilling for gold presently in the Murchison. However, the company changed its name to better reflect the huge opportunity it also sees in the rare earths space."

Meeka discovered it owned rare earths from its gold explorations at its Circle Valley project near Esperance, on WA’s south coast. A program of reconnaissance air core drilling in 2021 revealed thick gold intersections and pathfinder elements which hinted at the potential for a large mineralised system.

Earlier this year, another 15,000m air core drilling program for gold was launched at Circle Valley and samples that were re-analysed demonstrated the extent of shallow, high-grade mineralisation of rare earth elements.

In April, Meeka discovered total rare earth oxides, or “TREO”, of up to 633 parts per million in leached and oxidised surface horizon auger samples. Those samples were collected during gold explorations many years previous.

In June, the company reported further high-grade assay results, including up to 1748 parts per million TREO.

The rare earths deposits are known as ion-adsorption deposits because they adhere to clay particles. Though grades are invariably lower than those found in hard rock, it does make them generally easier, cheaper and safer to extract.

On the back of that discovery, Meeka moved to peg a much larger project, Cascade – some 2200sq km of tenure about 50km to the south west of Circle Valley and 35km west of Esperance.

The company says Cascade’s results to date show the mineralisation contains a high proportion of the valuable permanent magnet metals that are geopolitically critical, as well as valuable.

Plans are in place to accelerate drilling programs and expand the scale of clay-hosted rare earth mineralisation – already estimated at a whopping 1100 sq km.

Meeka is awaiting the imminent arrival of 16,000m of rare earth metallurgical test results from ANSTO – the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, or “ANSTO”.

If results continue to impress, Meeka Metals’ new name will resonate with rare earth oxide users, too.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au