Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Petratherm (PTR) announces the discovery of high-grade REEs at its Artemis Prospect in South Australia
- Artemis sits within a larger area of interest called Comet
- The Artemis Prospect has only had some 10 per cent of its total three kilometre by 1.5 kilometre area explored to date
- The company also notes that high-value magnetic rare earths make up substantial parts of mineralisation in some drill holes
- All high-grade results to date are at depths less than 40 metres
- Shares up 20.7 per cent, trading at 7 cents at 1:30 pm AEST
Petratherm (PTR) has announced that step-out drilling at its Artemis prospect in South Australia has revealed high-grade rare earth elements (REE) in assay results.
Significant intercepts highlighted by the company included two sections that were more than 30 meters thick. The first, measuring 37 meters in thickness, recorded an average of 1564 parts per million (ppm) REEs, with one three-meter pocket containing a reading of 2439 ppm REEs, and two six-meter pockets individually boasting readings of greater than 2000 ppm.
The second section, measuring 33 meters in thickness, had a lower average grade but included a 15-meter pocket with 1097 ppm REEs.
Two smaller intersections, both around 15 meters in thickness, also registered grades at or close to 2000 ppm.
Notably, all results were obtained from depths of less than 40 metres. The company has described these results as supportive evidence that a “blanket” of high-grade REEs exists at relatively shallow depths on-site.
Results from the assay lab also confirmed the presence of high-value magnetic rare earths as a significant part of the overall mineralised composition. Magnetic rare earths typically refer to neodymium and praseodymium.
The Artemis prospect, covering approximately three kilometers by 1.5 kilometers, remains open for exploration in all directions.
It is worth considering that Petratherm reports that only 10 percent of the total prospect area has been explored to date. The Artemis prospect is located within a larger target area called Comet.
“The layered mafic source rocks found at Comet have significant upside potential to produce areas with significantly higher REE concentrations and as such, in parallel to the current evaluation work, the Company will maintain a strong drilling exploration focus, as it searches for these areas,” PTR CEO Peter Reid said.
“Our drilling has confirmed the Artemis REE Prospect has excellent potential, with high-grade clay hosted rare earths intercepted over a large area with significant vertical thicknesses of up to 37 metres.
“The mineralisation remains open in several directions and metallurgical recovery test work will now commence to determine if low-cost beneficiation and acid leaching methods can be used to produce a commercial REE product.”
PTR shares were up 20.7 per cent, trading at 7 cents at 1:30 pm AEST.
