Victory Metals Limited (ASX:VTM) has announced its confirmation that the company has Australia’s largest heavy rare earth (HREE) indicated resource.
Tied to its North Stanmore ‘HREE dominant’ project, the updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) – in the lower-mid confidence ‘indicated’ category – boasts a total of 235Mt of ore in which 149Mt of ore is indicated.
Reflecting 63% of the total resource, Victory states this officially inks Australia’s largest indicated category HREE resource.
In terms of tonnage for targets metals, 29.2Kt is marked total rare earth oxides (TREO); 28Kt is marked heavy rare earth oxides (HREO). A further 3,000 tonnes of dysprosium and terbium was also pointed to on Tuesday.
The company interprets North Stanmore to have a higher-grade area closer to surface and the company also believes it can produce high-value byproduct hafnium. As for higher grade areas, the company believes its metallurgical downstream work can further boost grades to 1,662ppm.
“North Stanmore’s location in the Mid-West region of Western Australia, along the Great Northern Highway and just 6km from the Cue township, enables access to excellent established infrastructure,” VTM CEO Brendan Clark said.
“This dynamic has driven significant interest from potential off-take partners seeking primarily heavy rare earth element (vs light rare earth element) security of supply who have compared the North Stanmore HREE enriched deposit to existing world class HREE operations in southern China.
“Critically, North Stanmore’s regolith clay-hosted mineralisation overlying an alkaline intrusion is expected to allow for highly efficient mixed rare earth carbonate production that is heavy rare earth dominant.”
VTM last traded at 35cps.