Mount Ridley Mines Ltd (ASX:MRD) has announced a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its Mia rare earths prospect in Western Australia, with the inferred resource sitting at 168 million tonnes at 1,201 part per million (ppm) total rare earths (TREO).
The estimate focuses on Mia’s inner zone – which is an open-ended, 8.5 kilometre long corridor of clay-hosted rare earth mineralisation – and includes a higher-grade zone of 85Mt at 1,558ppm TREO (using a cutoff of 1,000ppm).
Mount Ridley have also progressed with sighter metallurgical tests on the deposit, showing that the in-situ grade of mineralisation could be increased by up to 160 percent through simple screening, as well as indicating that rare earth elements (REEs) could be leached into solution.
Chairman Peter Christie said that reaching a maiden resource estimate was an important goal for Mount Ridley, which the team was looking forward to building on.
“Through drilling, the Company has progressively revealed substantial intersections of clay-hosted REE mineralisation and today, we are pleased to report our maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for the central Mia Prospect,” he said.
“This is a key milestone for the Company and highlights the potential of the Mt Ridley Project which is in a favourable location just 55km from the Port of Esperance.”
Mount Ridley has been trading at 0.2 cents.