American Rare Earths Limited (ASX:ARR) has taken another step towards bringing the La Paz Rare Earth Project in Arizona, USA, to production with the appointment of a new chief executive officer in Marty Weems.
The new CEO brings a wealth of experience to the company, formerly known as Broken Hill Prospecting Ltd (ASX:BPL), with startup leadership and business development skills.
Welcomed to team
This comes with a background in leading presentations for government agencies, capital raisings and investor updates.
Weems, who has a Master of Science (MS) and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), has been welcomed to the team by chairman Creagh O’Connor.
ARR believes that localising the management and operations in the US, is an important step in ensuring the enhancement of value in the project and company.
Progress at project
Progress is also being made with the world-class project under the direction of La Paz LLC vice president exploration John Petersen as ARR transitions from explorer to developer.
This transformation is in line with the commitment of the US to become more self-sufficient in rare earths supply.
Rare Earth Elements (REE) remain a key US strategic resource, which through its domestic development is designed to provide input for US based processing.
Internal analysis
ARR has completed an internal analysis for the La Paz project which reviews all previous exploration, sampling and assay data.
The subsequent report will bring together the most recent mapping and sampling undertaken in October 2019 through March 2020 to identify various rock types within the resource area.
Once the review has been completed and results validated, the company will release an NI 43‐101-compliant update.
Petrographic analysis of all samples has provided details of the most prolific mineralised rocks containing REE and scandium, which also resides within the mineralised zones.
Improved understanding
With a better understanding of the genesis of the REEs together with the scandium, resource geologists are producing 3D models.
These will provide a pathway to the next steps in planning reverse circulation drill targets to further define the resource within the expanded La Paz mineralised system.
During the March quarter, the company conducted a trenching program between the two mineralisation zones which have been divided by alluvium.
The purpose of this was to reach bedrock from which more samples could be taken and to identify the underlying rock types.
Pending assay returns, the initial identification of rock types shows the potential of linking the original resource to the new expanded locations.
Further work is being undertaken to support the belief that the two zones are one very large mineralised system which significantly adds to the La Paz footprint.