Terrain Minerals has been given the all clear for a maiden drill campaign this month to target clay-hosted rare earths at its fully-owned Lort River project near Esperance, after receiving heritage clearance.
Last year, a review of multiple soil samples from historical gold exploration at the site returned positive results including 580 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO), with 25 per cent of the total grade made up of magnet rare earth oxides (MREO). Another two samples returned 525ppm and 513ppm TREO, with total MREO percentages of 27 and 28 per cent, respectively.
The company is also part of a study by the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA), which is looking into the characterisation of clay-hosted rare earths deposits in Western Australia. Neighbouring operations also participating include Mt Ridley Mines and OD6 Metals.
The Lort River project covers 320 square kilometres across the Esperance region that is quickly establishing itself as something of a rare earths province.
Clay-style rare earths deposits are considered attractive as they have less complex processing requirements, driving down beneficiation expenses and reducing the time required to scrub up the raw materials into usable end products.
Just last month, Terrain’s next-door neighbour OD6 unveiled a maiden mineral resource of 344 million tonnes at 1308ppm TREO for its flagship Splinter Rock project near Esperance – in just over a year since its market listing.
Further north, the company has completed a mobile metal ion (MMI) soil-sampling program to test the southern continuation of the copper-in-soil geochemical anomaly at its Larin’s Lane prospect that forms part of its greater Smokebush project in WA’s Mid West region. Geology at Larin’s Lane is interpreted as potentially being part of the Yalgoo-Singleton greenstone belt, which hosts 29Metals’ world-class Golden Grove copper-gold-silver-zinc-lead mine.
The sampling program also unveiled a new gold anomaly with Terrain already planning a maiden air-core (AC) campaign to test both targets as soon as next month.
The company is waiting on assay results from 12 reverse-circulation (RC) holes sunk at Smokebush, where it was targeting gold and lithium. The program follows the completion of an 11-hole phase-one campaign last month that intersected multiple zones of pegmatites. Of the 11 holes drilled, 10 intercepted pegmatites, with logged pegmatites including a 22m zone and an 11m zone.
The latest campaign saw six holes sunk to target multiple geophysical induced-polarisation (IP) chargeability anomalies at depths of between 20m and 100m. The anomalies were defined during the first half of this year at the company’s Mirja, Monza, Hurley and Paradise City prospects, which were being explored for their gold and base metal potential.
A further six holes were drilled to test the lithium mineralisation potential of outcropping pegmatites seen at the northern Monza and Hurley prospects.
Terrain has a big couple of months ahead as it looks to kick off a maiden campaign in the exciting Esperance region, while also waiting patiently for results from Smokebush. Watch this space…
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By Michael Philipps
