A Tony Sage-backed explorer has uncovered high-grade rare earths during a maiden drilling program at its Greenland exploration play.
A Tony Sage-backed explorer has uncovered high-grade rare earths during a maiden drilling program at its Greenland exploration play.
European Lithium, the West Leederville-headquartered company behind Sage’s Nasdaq-listed Critical Metals Corp, today announced assays from the first of 16 holes drilled at the Tanbreez Project in the island’s south.
Lab samples point to a 40-metre rare earth intersection which extends from the surface – a patch of mineralisation that Critical Metals Corp is particularly interested in given the high concentration of heavy rare earth oxides in the region.
Heavy rare earths, which have a higher atomic weight compared to their light counterparts, are the more valuable and sought-after elements in the rare earth family.
They are essential components in everything from electric vehicles to military hardware, and their utility in magnets makes them a key ingredient in the renewable energy revolution.
Elements in the light and heavy rare earths mix. Photo: Tanbreez
More than a quarter of Tanbreez’ first drill intersection is made up of these heavy rare earths, as well as other rare metal elements like gallium and niobium, making it a prime target for follow-up exploration.
Speaking to the results, Tanbreez director and Critical Metals CEO Tony Sage said the project hit the trifecta of high-grade, high-tonnage and high-quality potential.
“The first confirmation drill hole has yielded the high-grade percentage of light earth and heavy rare earth ratios with strong tantalum, niobium, and gallium results,” he said.
“We are excited by the scale of the thick source rock only 40 meters from the surface containing the mineralised high-grade intersection within the first drill hole.”
Big-picture, Greenland’s critical minerals have been pushed into the spotlight in recent weeks as U.S. President Donald Trump lobbed a renewed bid to acquire the Danish territory, citing national security reasons.
The President-Elect, whose inauguration is set to begin on Tuesday morning local time, has not ruled out taking the geostrategic island by force as global superpowers circle its territorial waters.
Greenland is estimated to house the second largest rare earth oxide deposit in the world, and mining hopefuls have the island in their sights as pressure mounts to reduce reliance on China to supply critical and energy transition minerals.
The Tanbreez project, which was founded by Perth geologist Greg Barnes in the early 2000s, is home to a multi-element resource that weighs in at 4.7 billion tonnes.
“We’ve only looked at about 10% of the ore, so there’s a lot more to go yet,” Mr Barnes told Business News earlier this month.
Critical Metals Corp struck a deal to acquire the project in June of last year and has since moved to a 42 per cent holding in Tanbreez.
The company has the option to up that stake to 92.5 per cent down the line for a cool $116 million in shares, subject to a range of conditions (including key greenlights from Greenland’s mining authorities).
“Tanbreez is a game-changing rare earth mine for the west, and is a key step towards positioning Critical Metals Corp as the preeminent critical minerals supplier,” Mr Sage said at the time.
With an exploitation license in the can, Mr Barnes believes the project offers Mr Sage a tangible rare earth prospect that has the potential to become much more than a mineral endowment.
“It’s got a real opportunity to take Sage into another orbit”, he said.
“When you’ve got a project of this size and quality, it can make a person very important.”
