Arafura Resources (ASX: ARU) has started drilling of an extensive rare earths target that trends for at least 1.8 kilometres in a northerly direction about 500 metres northeast of its Nolans Bore deposit in the Northern Territory.
The 24 hole reverse circulation drilling program totalling 1,500 metres is designed to test for shallow mineralisation on EL 28473, close to where wide intervals of rare earths mineralisation were identified in reverse circulation drilling during 2011.
Notable results then included 28 metres at 2.6% rare earth oxides, 2.6% P2O5 and 0.36 pounds per tonne U3O8 from 92 metres and 23 metres at 1.8T REO, 2.7% P2O5 and 0.19 pounds per tonne U3O8 from 39 metres.
Field work has demonstrated that these drill intercepts occur at the southern end of an extensive coincident airborne geophysical-biogeochemical anomaly, which trends for at least 1.8 kilometres in a northerly direction.
The current drilling program is expected to be completed within the next three weeks.
Arafura's Nolans rare earth project is located in the Northern Territory of Australia, and recently announced that it is targeting capital cost reductions of between A$500 million and A$1 billion at the project - which could have the potential to help the company attract suitable finance.
The Technical Review and Optimisation Program with Chinese rare earths experts is also well underway. Initial beneficiation tests and results have been encouraging.
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