West Perth-based Meeka Metals has been buoyed by initial metallurgical testing at its Circle Valley project that show high extraction rates of high-value magnet rare earths as it presses to commercialise its discoveries in WA’s south.
The tests reveal total rare earths extraction averaged 76 per cent and the magnet rare earths leached up to 86 per cent extraction with a mean of 82 per cent.
Taken with the tier-1 location of the deposits, the high level of permanent magnet elements and the geo-political importance of the rare earths, Meeka says the test results bolster the significance of its two projects.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, or “ANSTO”, conducted the testing, using various extraction techniques on five composite samples from Circle Valley.
Meeka Metals Managing Director Tim Davidson said: “Drilling has demonstrated shallow high-grade rare earths are pervasive within our 100 per cent-owned province scale land package.”
"With metallurgical results now showing there is a pathway to production of a commercial product, we plan to advance these large scale, high-grade projects at pace.”
Meeka has two opportunities in the sector near the southern coast — at Circle Valley and to the south west, Cascade.
The mineralisation at Circle Valley lies within saprolite clay.
Management says scale, grade and metallurgy are key considerations when it comes to evaluating clay rare earths, adding it will use the results to optimise the extraction options and identify methods for material upgrade and rejection of non-target elements.
Circle Valley, comprising 222 square kilometres, was its first discovery and came whilst Meeka was undertaking a reconnaissance air-core drilling program in 2021.
Further air-core drilling this year illustrated the extent of shallow, high-grade mineralisation of rare earth elements.
In June, Meeka reported grading of up to 1748 parts per million total rare earth oxides, or “TREO”, at Circle Valley amid large-scale zones with thick high-grade rare earths mineralisation.
Almost 15,000m of samples from this year’s drilling program at Circle Valley are pending assay, expected this month and next with another drilling program scheduled for September.
Meeka remains keen to press on. Management says it has sufficient information to plan for definition drilling for a mineral resource estimate and is aiming for that work to be completed and an initial mineral resource issued in the first half of next year.
On the back of the potential of Circle Valley, the company moved quickly to peg 2068 sq km of land about 50km to the south-west — the Cascade project.
Rare earth elements have been found in surface samples in Cascade’s north and central blocks at grades up to 633ppm and Meeka says the potential for significant zones of clay-hosted rare earths mineralisation is considerable.
Moreover, the mineralisation contains a high proportion of the magnet metals — namely, neodymium and praseodymium oxides — sought by industry to manufacture mobile phones, electric vehicle batteries, computer drive motors and such.
Meeka plans drilling at both Cascade and Circle Valley next year, with the target of a mineral resource estimate for Circle Valley in the June quarter of 2023.
No date has been set for such an estimate for Cascade. However, Meeka says planned drilling will focus on rare earths with the highest value — “ultimately targeting an initial mineral resource”.
Meeka Metals was Meeka Gold until last month when shareholders decided to rebrand the company to better reflect the opportunity presented by the increasingly sought-after rare earths.
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By Matt Birney
