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- Ark Mines is exploring for rare earths and heavy minerals in north Queensland
- The company’s current flagship play is called Sandy Mitchell
- Ark believes it’s got the cheapest placer deposit in Australia to mine
- Shares last at 14c
North Queensland-based REE explorer Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) has posted confirmation its geotech team have proven higher-grade mineralisation is present on-site.
FInal assays were returned to the company and reported today with maximum reads of up to 3500ppm – 0.35%.
The market reaction hasn’t been kind – shares were down -22% at 11.30am AEDT – but the nature of the project is crucial to understand.
Ark says it has REEs and heavy minerals in sand that start at surface and can be easily mined and refined, meaning that grades aren’t necessarily as crucial.
The market has clearly dismissed this for now, however.
On top of REEs, the company has also hit zirconium in heavy mineral (HM) sands, a product with diverse applications downstream.
The company says that another batch of assays are due to it, after which point, the company is to ink a maiden MRE JORC-compliant resource.
That MRE will then, in turn, form a Pre-Feasibility Study – typical for explorers – ahead of further works into the latter half of the 2020’s.
“The final assays now banked by Ark from the 1st stage of drilling at Sandy Mitchell represent a significant milestone,” Executive Director Ben Emery said.
“The field team will now focus on the next round of key operational milestones at Sandy Mitchell, commencing with the delivery of a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate later this year.”
Shares last at 14cps.
