Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) has uncovered significant depth potential in a completed shallow auger drilling program at the Santa Anna project in Brazil, finding that the majority of latest results have confirmed REE and niobium mineralisation from surface to end of hole and further confirming the potential continuation at depth.
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The shallow auger drilling program was only designed to target niobium and rare earth elements (Nb-REE) in the top 15m of the clay-rich layer at Santa Anna.
Along with identifying the potential for mineralisation beyond 15 metres, the latest drilling also returned excellent high-grade results. Highlights included 9.5 metres at 4,994 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) from surface to EOH, including one metre at 10,980ppm TREO from six metres; and 8m at 9,577ppm TREO from surface to EOH, including 2m at 14,926ppm TREO from 5m.
Power’s MD, Mena Habib, said the shallow auger drilling program has again yielded outstanding outcomes, aligning with previous findings.
A third-stage program has commenced to further test the deeper parts of the alkaline carbonatite complex using the shallow auger and recent geophysics as a guide, Power also confirmed to shareholders today.
“These strong results have reinforced our commitment to proceed with the newly initiated 10,000m reverse circulation drilling campaign. This is an exciting time… and we are eager to see what this next phase of drilling will reveal,” Mr Habib said.
Power’s auger drilling was designed to test a large shallow volume to an average depth of 13.2, and successfully provided continuous concentrations of Nb and REE across 3.4 million cubic metres.
The company has contracted SRK Consulting to develop a maiden Santa Anna mineral resource estimate (MRE); however, the latest auger results will not be included.
Mr Habib said the initial MRE aims to establish a benchmark starting resource while creating an optimised targeting model for the planned RC drilling.
PNN is up +5%, to 10.5c.
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