Meeka Gold Ltd (ASX:MEK) has hit upon “pervasive” high-value, high-grade rare earths in assays from recent drilling at Circle Valley.
The mineralisation was discovered in the saprolite clay horizon, which blankets the area in varying thickness, from 2 metres to more than 50 metres.
MEK said the assays revealed pervasive high-grade rare earths, up to 36 metres thick and grading up to 1,748 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO).
The mineralisation also consistently demonstrates that a high proportion of the grade, up to 47%, consists of valuable magnet rare earths.
Presence of scandium
Scandium is often found in association with rare earth elements in clay-hosted deposits and this is proving to be the case at Circle Valley.
The company welcomes high scandium grades of up to 132 g/t with this batch of assay results.
Scandium is a valuable metal used to create aluminium alloys for lightweight, high-strength components in the aerospace and transportation industries. It’s a highly valuable product, currently trading at around US$1,000 per kilogram oxide and could provide a meaningful by-product in addition to rare earths.
High-value, high-grade rare earths
A snapshot of the results reveals high-grade intersections including:
- 15 metres at 1,054ppm TREO (37% magnet REO) and 14 g/t scandium from 40 metres;
- 4 metres at 1,465ppm TREO (38% magnet REO) and 37 g/t scandium from 56 metres;
- 8 metres at 1,039ppm TREO (40% magnet REO) and 11 g/t scandium from 36 metres;
- 8 metres at 909ppm TREO (32% magnet REO) and 110 g/t scandium from 36 metres;
- 8 metres at 856ppm TREO (37% magnet REO) and 22 g/t scandium from 60 metres; and
- 8 metres at 831ppm TREO (43% magnet REO) and 14 g/t scandium from 52 metres.
Managing director Tim Davidson said: “These assays continue to strengthen the view that there is a high-value deposit of rare earth metals at our 100%-owned Circle Valley Project.
Resource drilling to come
“While we still have a large number of assays pending, we can already identify zones that host consistent thick, shallow, high-grades and these will be targeted by resource definition drilling later this year.
“Importantly, these high-grade zones have very high proportions of the valuable magnet rare earths, over 45% of the total grade in areas.
“We are also seeing very high scandium grades associated with the high-grade rare earths. Scandium is a valuable alloying metal used with aluminium to create lightweight, high-strength products and could provide a meaningful by-product within a rare earth mineral resource.”
The company is waiting on a further 14,957 metres of drill samples and these are expected to be received over the coming two months.
Resource definition drilling at Circle Valley is slated for late 2022 following drilling at the Cascade Rare Earths Project.