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- Ionic Rare Earths (IXR) has received assays from its drilling at its 51 per cent-owned Makuutu Rare Earths Project in Uganda
- These latest assays come from holes drilled over three areas within the Makuutu Western Zone
- Latest results confirm near-surface rare earth element mineralisation and also returned peak values of 728 parts per million total rare earth oxides
- This program had multiple goals: increase the 26-kilometre-long mineralised corridor, which it recently extended to 37 kilometres, validate the exploration target and expand the mineral resource
- IXR expects to release the updated mineral resource estimate in the first quarter of next year
- Company shares are up 5.56 per cent and are trading at 1.9 cents
Ionic Rare Earths (IXR) has received assays from its phase two drilling program conducted at its 51 per cent-owned Makuutu Rare Earths Project in Uganda.
The recently completed program included 222 holes, for 3745 metres, drilled across three resource expansion areas (being A, B and C) within the Makuutu Western Zone (MWZ)
While these fifth-tranche assays are from holes within the MWZ exploration target areas, other drill holes in the program targeted the eastern zone as well as the existing mineral resource area.
Drilling aimed to validate IXR’s exploration target, increase the potential of the 26-kilometre-long Makuutu mineralisation corridor. However, the mineralisation corridor was recently extended to 37 kilometres in length.
Additionally, the drilling program will provide data for an upcoming mineral resource expansion.
The existing mineral resource sits at 78.6 million tonnes at 840 parts per million total rare earth oxides.
Best results include 8.8 metres at 612 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 4.9 metres, 12.5 metres at 728 ppm TREO from four metres, 11.7 metres at 621 ppm TREO from 4.1 metres and 8.4 metres at 700 ppm TREO from 2.3 metres.
“These tranche five results originate from an exploration target area of approximately 4.5 square kilometres so we can expect based upon the results a sizeable contribution towards the resource update in Q1 2021,” Managing Director Tim Harrison said.
Ionic Rare Earths expects to release the updated mineral resource estimate in the first quarter of next year. This will be followed by a scoping study to increase the project’s scale and present options for the potential increase of production capacity.
Company shares are up 5.56 per cent and are trading at 1.9 cents at 12:24 pm AEDT.
