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- Eclipse Metals (EPM) has confirmed high-grade rare earth mineralisation at the Gronnedal-Ika deposit, which is part of the Ivittuut Project in Greenland
- Eclipse collected historic surface samples from the carbonatite deposit to test its rare earth element potential
- Pleasingly, sampling returned total rare earth elements (TREE) grading up to 34,468 parts per million (ppm)
- Sampling also confirmed the deposit contains europium with a peak value of 423 ppm
- Eclipse Metals will now plan a systematic geochemical survey to define drilling targets
- EPM is up 29.4 per cent and shares are trading at 2.2 cents
Eclipse Metals (EPM) has received assays for historic surface samples collected from the Gronnedal-Ika deposit, which is part of the Ivittuut Project in Greenland.
The Ivittuut Project was once the world’s largest and only source of naturally-occurring cryolite, which is an extremely rare mineral in commercial quantities. It’s used to reduce furnace temperature when extracting aluminium from bauxite ore.
While the area was never systematically explored for rare earth element (REE) mineralisation, the potential to host REEs was noted in academic journals.
Pleasingly, Eclipse has not only confirmed the presence of high-grade REE mineralisation at the Gronnedal-Ika deposit, but has found mineralisation is more widespread than originally believed.
The grab samples returned total rare earth elements (TREE) up to 34,468 parts per million (ppm), with seven out of 16 samples recording grades of more than 10,600 ppm.
Eclipse also confirmed the whole deposit contains europium with a peak value of 423 ppm.
Some of the highest mineralisation was related to north–south carbonatite dykes which are characterised by shearing and fenitisation that can be traced over several kilometres north. More late-stage carbonatite dykes and fenites are known to exist in the area but haven’t been mapped or systematically sampled.
“These REE results show high europium values amongst other REEs, which are in extremely short supply around the world. Many of these samples were collected from carbonatite in Gronnedal, but the highly altered surrounding rocks also offer excellent mineralisation potential,” Executive Chairman Carl Popal said.
“The REE prospectivity fits well with our mission to excel in the commercialisation of metals and minerals demanded in the production of green energy and required by the industry to reduce pollutants,” Carl added.
Eclipse Metals will conduct further work at the project, including a systematic geochemical survey to define drilling targets.
EPM is up 29.4 per cent and shares are trading at 2.2 cents at 11:20 am AEDT.
