Javelin Minerals has highlighted positive rare earths results from a comprehensive sampling program at its Mt Ida-Ida Valley project near Leonora, with assays of up to 0.11 per cent total rare earth oxides.
The company has collected 680 orientation samples from selected tenements at the operation, with the positive rare earth assays taken from the Turkey Creek kimberlite province in WA’s Goldfields region.
Analysis from field investigations also confirmed the presence of pegmatites within three of the company’s tenements, with soil samples showing lithium results of up to 60 parts per million. Additional assays also returned geochemically-elevated gold levels up to 0.004ppm and elevated nickel up to 570ppm from one of the key tenements.
In addition to the sampling program, Javelin has also conducted a detailed aeromagnetic and radiometric survey across the project, with analysis expected to provide the company with potential drill targets.
Javelin Minerals executive director Matthew Blake said: “The company has now secured a very strategic tenure of over 2000 square kilometres just west of Leonora which includes the Turkey Creek kimberlite field. It is pleasing to record the presence of anomalous REE in this same locality and we will progress our understanding of the REE potential here as a priority.”
The Mt Ida-Ida Valley project comprises 20 exploration licenses and applications covering an expansive 2270 square kilometres in WA’s prolific Goldfields region. The majority of the project is covered by soils, with less than five per cent of the visible basement exposed. The kimberlites at Turkey Creek were discovered in 1990s by De Beers in its search for diamonds, but the ground was not examined for rare earths.
Javelin says it has observed many outcropping pegmatites across three of its tenements that warrant further follow-up. One of the tenements is contiguous with ASX-listed Red Dirt Metals’ Mt Ida lithium project, where a high-grade lithium discovery was made in late 2021. The breakthrough sparked the emergence of what is now one of the country’s fastest-emerging lithium provinces.
Last year, St George Mining reported rock chips going as high as 2.7 per cent lithium oxide at its Mt Alexander project, just 17km west of one of Javelin’s newly-identified pegmatite-bearing tenements.
The company still has more than 40 aeromagnetic, radiometric and structural targets to investigate at its Turkey Creek prospect, with the sampling program ongoing.
Javelin says it also plans to follow up on the geochemically-elevated lithium, precious and base metals anomalies identified in the campaign.
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By Michael Philipps
