Eclipse Metals Ltd (ASX:EPM) has identified multiple new magnetic and electro-magnetic anomalies in a re-interpretation of geophysical data at the Ivittuut Project in Greenland.
These anomalies share similar geophysical signatures with known mineralisation in other major mineral deposits within the Gardar Province.
The project tenement is considered highly prospective for rare earth elements (REE), with Core Geophysics commissioned to obtain available open file geophysical datasets, process the data and make an initial comment on the data for REE, magnetite and massive sulphide exploration potential.
This work has provided a significant amount of information on the prospectivity of the carbonatite occurrence and mafic dykes.
Magnetic responses
Recent geophysical surveys over the project (circa 1980+) have been captured by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and include regional surveys commissioned by the government and those conducted by exploration companies.
The most relevant datasets are the 1995 GEUS aeromagnetic survey (TMI) flown at 500-metre line spacing and a Dighem airborne electromagnetic survey flown at 200-metre line spacing by Diamond Field Resources in 1995.
It was flown by helicopter over areas off inland ice and glacier following topographic contours with flight traverses from 2 kilometres to 5 kilometres apart, with data captured by digitising maps generated at the time.
The strongest magnetic responses are evident in the eastern portion of the tenement and are closely associated with carbonatite and gabbro bodies as mapped in the 1:100,000 geology series.
This suggests a high magnetite concentration at these sites and also highlights numerous north-east and east-west trending (gabbroic) dykes of which only some appear in the 1:100,000 mapping.
The magnetic data highlights two ovoid shaped responses associated with the carbonatite bodies.
Comparing the size of the magnetic response with the extent of the mapped carbonatite suggests there is a larger potential extent of carbonatite than indicated by earlier mapping.
Next steps
Re-interpretation and remodelling of geophysical data have successfully extracted previous unknown information over the Gronnedal-lka areas.
The Dighem survey defined seven conductive targets which are recommended for follow up exploration and ground truthing.
Radiometric data is sparse but available traverses show anomalous response over the carbonatites.
The radiometric surveys are an important direct detection tool for REE exploration, and it is recommended that additional, higher resolution surveys be conducted over the project tenement.