Northern Minerals Ltd (ASX:NTU) has started a major exploration drilling program at its Browns Range Heavy Rare Earth Project in northern Western Australia with an objective of increasing the project’s heavy rare earth resource and life of mine potential.
As a part of the program, the company plans to drill up to 16,500 metres across the tenements in total, with around 8,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling planned to be completed by the end of 2020.
The company has committed a $5 million budget for its exploration program for the remainder of the financial year ending June 30, 2021.
Designed to “underpin ongoing ambition”
Northern Minerals CEO Mark Tory said: “This significant commitment to exploration in the next nine months is designed to underpin the company’s ongoing ambition to realise the potential of Browns Range beyond the pilot plant.
“A key consideration of any future feasibility study on a commercial, large-scale operation is building our mineral resource to the point the inventory would support at least 20 years of heavy rare earth production.”
Exploration program
In the RC drilling before Christmas, the focus will be on identified greenfield targets and follow-up on previous intersections.
Drilling will test both identified greenfield targets and follow-up on previous encouraging intersections, particularly at the Dazzler and Banshee deposits.
Existing rare earth deposits and exploration targets within the Browns Range project area.
Exploration results, along with test-work findings from the pilot plant, will feed into any future commercial, large-scale project feasibility study.
About Browns Range
The company is one of a few producers of heavy rare earth element dysprosium outside of China via production from the Browns Range project.
The project is in the remote East Kimberly region near the Northern Territory border.
Northern Minerals’ tenure around the project covers 3,595 square kilometres and is centred on the Browns Range Dome, a major geological feature covering about 1,500 square kilometres.
A targeting exercise has identified 170 conceptual targets within the tenement package and these are now being prioritised for systematic exploration.
Northern Minerals is also evaluating the economics of further downstream processing options for Browns Range ore which includes separating heavy rare earth oxides for better economic realisation.