Meeka Gold Ltd (ASX:MEK) has identified broad zones of rare earth mineralisation in an analysis of aircore drill samples collected during the 2021 drilling at the Circle Valley Project in Western Australia.
Of 14 holes, 13 returned total rare earth oxide (TREO) grades above 300 parts per million (ppm), including:
➢ 12 metres at 1,003ppm TREO within 36 metres at 672ppm TREO from 28 metres;
➢ 4 metres at 1,177ppm TREO within 5 metres at 1,040ppm TREO from 36 metres;
➢ 4 metres at 1,040ppm TREO within 10 metres at 665ppm TREO from 36 metres;
➢ 1 metre at 1,521ppm TREO within 4 metres at 993ppm TREO from 20 metres; and
➢ 4 metres at 877ppm TREO within 23 metres at 514ppm TREO from 48 metres.
The drill holes were selected from various geological domains and weathering profiles within the Circle Valley tenure to assess rare earth element (REE) enrichment potential across the project, with all samples above 300ppm returning an average weighted grade of 652ppm TREO.
Circle Valley offers REE exposure
“Gold exploration continues to be our focus at Circle Valley, and based on the work we have done to date we have a view that there is a large gold system driving the anomalism we are seeing in the drilling results,” Meeka Gold CEO Tim Davidson said.
“Having said that, the geology team identified some interesting rare earth elements in the handheld XRF data, which we have now confirmed through laboratory analysis to be broad zones of mineralisation.
“The broader zones of mineralisation appear to be coincident with lows observed in the aeromagnetic data and where the drilling log shows the upper saprolite has been preserved.
“We are in the process of reviewing the regolith profiles logged during the current aircore program and will send prospective samples to the laboratory for REE analysis to better determine the distribution of REE mineralisation within the tenure.”
In addition to the REE, results have shown elevated Scandium grades corresponding with elevated TREO grades, demonstrating a maximum Scandium grade of 63ppm and length weighted average grades of 18ppm in all samples above 300ppm TREO.
About Meeka Gold
Meeka Gold is a junior gold explorer with a portfolio of exploration projects across WA.
Meeka’s flagship Murchison Gold Project has a combined 343 square kilometre landholding in the prolific Murchison Gold Fields of Western Australia and hosts a large, high-grade 1.1-million-ounce mineral resource.
It also owns the Circle Valley Gold Project and the Cascade Rare Earth Element Project, both within the Albany-Fraser Orogen in southern WA.