Junior explorer Meeka Gold Limited has entered the rare earths game following the acquisition of the Cascade project that boasts a huge 2,068 square kilometre landholding in the emerging province along the Albany-Fraser mobile belt in southwest Western Australia.
Neighbouring explorers have recently had a spate of successes in the region with the most notable being Mount Ridley Mines who sit just to the west of the Cascade project. Mount Ridley recently intersected peak grades up to 10,461 parts per million total rare earth oxides, or “TREO” with anomalous mineralisation identified over a strike length in-excess of 25 kilometres.
Meeka says Cascade is highly prospective for ionic clay adsorption rare earth element deposits given the success of neighbouring projects.
Rare earth elements, or REE are necessary components for many critical items in the renewable energy sector including in electric vehicles, battery technologies and within the defence sector.
With China currently controlling 95 per cent of the world’s REE supplies governments across the globe have become keen to secure supplies independent of Beijing. The geo-politics coupled with the worldwide push for decarbonisation has led to a sharp increase in demand causing significant price appreciation in rare earth oxides over the last two years.
The Cascade rare earths project came onto Meeka’s radar following recent exploration success in search of gold at the nearby Circle Valley gold project. The company had compiled as much open-source data as it could to further its gold endeavours however recognised a much larger opportunity presented in the form of ionic clay adsorption rare earth element exploration.
Following the discovery of widespread rare earth anomalism in the area the company began applying for contiguous exploration tenure that fit the ionic clay adsorption mineralisation style.
The project is located only 35km from the regional centre of Esperance and has significant infrastructure including air and sea ports, grid power and an existing road network.
Meeka Gold Limited Chief Executive Officer, Tim Davidson said: “We originally set about building and systematically reviewing our geological database for the Albany-Fraser in search of gold exploration targets to replicate the success we are having at Circle Valley, however the data continually pointed us toward this province scale rare earth opportunity. The extraordinary and compelling scale of this opportunity, and the very low cost of entry for the business meant we needed to act decisively and secure the ground, which we have done.”
“I also want to reinforce to our shareholders that we remain laser focussed on our gold strategy, with exploration drilling currently ongoing across both the Murchison and Circle Valley Gold Projects, and Pre-Feasibility Studies for the Murchison progressing, however the scale of the Cascade REE opportunity, value accretive potential and minimal cost of entry compelled the business to act.”
With gold hits coming in thick and heavy at both its Circle Valley deposit and its Murchison project – Meeka can now add a prospective and well positioned rare earths project to its arsenal.
Whilst the company is keeping its primary focus on gold - the red-hot rare earths market is a well-timed addition to the company’s burgeoning WA portfolio. Should the Cascade project return the same sort of numbers as its neighbours, the rare earths part of Meeka’s portfolio may not be in the shadow of the gold plays for much longer.
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