Krakatoa Resources Ltd (ASX: KTA) has seen its shares go skywards on news of a new niobium and rare earth element gravity target which identified at its Mt Clere project, in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia.
Krakatoa shares jumped 54.54% on news of the discovery, which was made through mapping, along with sampling from stream sediment and soil.
This had accompanied earlier exploration of the whole project area, beginning with satellite work to identify areas of interest, as well as remote sensing, geochemistry data and geophysical interpretations.
Krakatoa’s exploration achievements have been fairly quick, with the company first stepping out to begin this work in the middle of 2023.
The new target – prospective for both niobium and REEs – is believed to host alkaline intrusive systems such as carbonatite, which have been obscured by the extensive sand and laterite cover.
Its catchment area, according to assays, stretches over a 40-kilometre area, and this coincides with a 15-kilometre-long gravity high.
Krakatoa is now undertaking infill soil sampling work to test the target.
CEO Mark Major said the company had been busy interpreting results from last season’s field work, which had allowed them to pick out several areas of interest.
“One of these is the Stone Tank – Bullbadger area, where several coincident geological and geophysical features align with new geochemical data,” he said.
“We believe we have narrowed down the focus area for finding potential carbonatite intrusives, given the favourable carbonatite pathfinder geochemistry results combined with the supporting geophysical signatures.”
Krakatoa was trading at 1.7 cents at 13:10 AEST.