Shares in ASX-listed mineral explorer Emu surged 60 per cent during intraday trading after it lodged applications to extend its prospective Condingup project to an overall tenement area of 734 square kilometres. The company has also applied for another three new tenement packages in the broader area totalling a further 304 square kilometres. The latest land grab will substantially increase Emu’s exposure to rare earths by capturing more of the prospective Booanya granites.
Condingup is situated just 35km south-east of ASX-listed OD6 Metals’ Splinter Rock project where a recent rare earths discovery spiked shares in the neighbouring explorer by over 200 per cent over two days.
Emu has conducted an assessment of available hydrogeological data and has determined the company’s Condingup project is also prospective for thick, clay-hosted, rare earths overlaying favourable Booanya intrusive lithologies.
Clay-hosted rare earth deposits offer large-scale, low-cost mining opportunities due to cheaper mining and processing costs when compared to the higher-grading hard rock alternative.
Whilst a drilling project is yet to be finalised, Emu's geological investigation of the project leads the explorer to believe its package could hold potential rare earths-bearing clays up to 60m thick.
Emu Chairman, Peter Thomas said: “Our recent intensive work has identified what we believe are, highly prospective REE exploration areas associated with the Booanya granites east of Esperance and at Balladonia, within the Esperance and Recherche Supersuites.”
When combined with the company’s Merredin rare earths project, Emu's rare earths-focused landholdings cover over 1,100 square kilometres of highly prospective exploration licences.
Emu is one of a number of ASX-listed companies chasing down the lucrative ionic clay-style deposits that have shot to prominence in recent times because they are similar to some of the leading Chinese deposits that form more than two-thirds of global supply.
Remarkably, ionic-style clay deposits are currently only mined in southern China.
Compared with traditional hard rock-style rare earth deposits, clay-hosted assets contain a much higher proportion of superior value rare earths used in the production of permanent magnets — key components of electric vehicles including neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium and terbium.
Recent forecasts suggest the transition from carbon to renewable energy could push the demand for magnet rare earths to 250,000 tonnes by 2035 – about triple that of present requirements.
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