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- Australian Rare Earths (AR3) commences a major new aircore drilling program at its wholly-owned Koppamurra rare earths project on the South Australian-Victorian border
- The current phase of drilling follows after a 104 per cent increase in the project’s mineral resource estimate
- Drilling will continue until the end of the year and into early 2023 with approximately 1000 samples generated each week and submitted to the company’s laboratory for analysis
- The drilling will support an updated MRE which is expected to be completed by late Q1 2023
- Shares in AR3 are down 4.23 per cent to trade at 34 cents at 1:59 pm AEST
Australian Rare Earths (AR3) has commenced a major new aircore drilling program at its wholly-owned Koppamurra rare earths project on the South Australian-Victorian border.
The current phase of drilling follows after a 104 per cent increase in the JORC mineral resources estimate (MRE) of 81.4 million tonnes at 785 parts per million total rare earth oxide (TREO).
Drilling will continue until the end of the year and into early 2023 with approximately 1000 samples generated each week and submitted to the company’s laboratory in Bureau Veritas, Adelaide.
The drilling will support an updated MRE which is expected to be completed by late Q1 2023.
Managing Director Rick Pobjoy said the recommencement of drilling at Koppamurra marked another step in the company’s strategy to establish a globally significant, long-life rare earths business in South Australia.
“After delivering what turned out to be a game-changing resource increase in July, we are now moving ahead with the next step in our development plan with a new phase of drilling designed to upgrade and further expand this high-quality deposit,” he said.
“Drilling will target immediate extensions of the MRE, within the exploration target and inferred resource areas which will progress the confidence in the resource footprint and classification, underpinning the economic feasibility of the project.”
The company believes that Koppamurra is well placed to capitalise on the sizeable forecast growth in demand for sources of rare earth elements.
Further, the project has all four of the key rare earth elements required to make high-strength permanent magnets needed for electric vehicle motors and wind turbines.
With a cash balance of $12.7 million, the company is well funded to complete drilling and other development activities to advance the project.
Shares in AR3 were down 4.23 per cent to trade at 34 cents at 1:59 pm AEST.
