Chase Mining generates shallow rare earth and uranium targets at Barkly North in NT

The company has generated several magnetic and gravity-related target areas at the rare earth element (REE) and uranium project, with particular emphasis on an REE trend sampled by Geoscience Australia. CML will follow up with a surface sam

Proactive Published 06/10/2022

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Chase Mining Corporation Ltd (ASX:CML) has identified several potential shallow rare earth and uranium drill targets from magnetic and gravity data modelled by geophysical consultants Geodiscovery Group at the Barkly North Project in the Northern Territory.

The majority of the data was sourced from Geoscience Australia’s recent surveys and open-file public data kept by the Northern Territory Geological Survey at little to no cost to the company.

Chase is searching for magnetic, dense bodies that could be prospective for rare earth anomalies or base metal mineralisation, the latter of which is known to be present on the tenure from historical drilling on the project.

Some limited exploration was undertaken on the project by BHP in the 1990s, which intersected scattered copper, lead, and zinc mineralisation but failed to identify the main body of mineralisation.

Newly generated targets

BHP drilled two notable holes on the tenure, MD1A – considered to be a near miss to the mineralised body – and MD6 - a follow-up hole which intersected a completely different geological formation, causing BHP to abandon the project.

Eastern Barkly North rare earth element (REE) and uranium project area.

Chase’s more recent modelling has revealed magnetic and gravity targets not far from BHP’s drill holes, demonstrating none of the previous holes accurately tested for mineralisation in this area.

The company has interpreted these targets to consist of dense magnetic rocks, thought to be intrusions or iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) style mineralisation.

IOCG formations are associated with large volumes of REE and uranium elements, the presence of which was previously confirmed by surface samples collected by Geoscience Australia.

Apart from REEs and uranium, Geoscience’s surface sample also indicated the presence of tellurium, bismuth, antimony, lead, copper, molybdenum, cobalt, niobium and platinum.

Chase intends to further investigate this target area with a field crew, planning to closely sample the rare earth trend of the project with an emphasis on magnetic targets.

This sampling program is scheduled for the second half of October, with results expected in December.