Godolphin Resources has sent 31 diamond drill core samples from the Narraburra project to Australia’s leading authority on mineral and metallurgical testing. The samples form part of Narraburra’s updated mineral resource estimate to JORC 2012 standards which is expected in March.
The test work will provide a better understanding of Narraburra’s rare earth elements and rare metals composition. The Australia Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, or “ANSTO” are conducting the metallurgical testing.
ANSTO has more than 30 years of expertise and experience in critical minerals and rare earths extraction processing.
Godolphin Resources Managing Director, Jeneta Owens said: “We look forward to working with ANSTO over the coming weeks to understand the Project’s mineralogical make up and leachability. Our initial focus is to assess Narraburra’s potential as a mining project, with the REEs extracted by leaching, often the lowest cost method to extract metals”
Located some 340km west of Sydney, in central New South Wales, Narraburra in the increasingly geologically important Lachlan Fold Belt.
The Narraburra project lay largely untouched until 1999, when the Devonian Age rocks resting in the granite were identified to contain rare earths.
Since then, Narraburra has been earmarked as one of Australia’s largest zirconium, rare earth elements and rare metal resources whilst also being prospective for lithium.
Godolphin is currently reassessing Narraburra’s mineral resource from JORC 2004 codes to become JORC 2012 compliant. The prior resource reveals there is 73.2 million tonnes at 1250 grams per tonne zirconium oxide, 327 g/t rare earth oxides, 146 g/t yttrium oxide, 126 g/t niobium oxide and 118 g/t lithium oxide.
Despite being undiscovered for decades, Narraburra rests in a well-established mining precinct with access to extensive infrastructure.
All eyes are on the coming new resource estimate, no doubt including the Australian governments’, as Narraburra has been flagged by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission as a “critical minerals project”.
Mining and processing of critical minerals such as rare earths is dominated by China, with the People’s Republic controlling more than 80 per cent of both the upstream and downstream processes.
Rare earth elements are traditionally used in a variety of applications, such as metal alloys, medical imaging and petroleum refining.
However, the for rare earths has skyrocketed with rapid advancements in technology across several industries, such as cleaner energy and pollution controls, magnets for electric vehicle batteries and military applications.
Godolphin is one Australian explorer investigating how to bring parts of the rare earths supply chain with local borders.
The company remains well funded with some $2.4 million in the bank to support its strategic explorations programs. Just as well too, because the company has one of the largest land holdings in the Lachlan Fold Belt, with over 3400 square kilometres of prospective tenure.
The Lachlan Fold Belt is a historic mining precinct with multiple new discoveries made recent years, emphasising its future potential.
The Lachlan Orogen is recognised as world-class mineral province for metalliferous deposits and rare earths deposits. The region has seen a flurry of activity in recent years as many consider the ground to be “elephant country” for giant mineral deposits.
Whilst it’s still early days for Goldolphin the figures appear promising, despite the full potential of Narraburra not being known. The incoming data may provide a nice surprise in the months ahead as the mineralisation is open in all directions and at depth.
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By Matt Birney
