Petratherm (ASX:PTR) shares soar on rare earths ‘discovery’ at Comet project

• Petratherm (PTR) announces it has uncovered “significant” rare earth occurrences from recent rotary air blast (RAB) drilling at its Comet project in South Australia
• The company says mineralised clay encountered contains concentrations of high-value rare earth elements (REE) that remain open at depth
• Petratherm says all 44 RAB holes assayed have returned significant total rare earth oxide (TREO) values, with 23 weighing in at more than 1,000 parts per million TREO
• It says “the results provide strong evidence that the northern Gawler Craton is fertile for ionic clay hosted rare earth mineralisation”
• PTR shares soar 138 per cent to 15.5 cents

Petratherm (PTR) shares shot up after the company announced it had made a rare earths “discovery” at its Comet project in South Australia’s northern Gawler Craton region.

The company said initial results received from a recent regional rotary air blast (RAB) drilling program carried out at the project were highly encouraging.

The shallow RAB drilling tested the top three metres of the prospective clay horizon.

Petratherm said the mineralised clay encountered includes concentrations of high-value rare earth elements (REE) that remain open at depth.

It conducted a full suite REE analysis of 44 RAB holes drilled at the project after seeing anomalous light REE and other REE pathfinder elements in initial assay work.

The company said all 44 holes assayed returned significant total rare earth oxide (TREO) values, with 23 weighing in at more than 1,000 parts per million TREO.

“These are highly encouraging early results and a validation of the company’s long-standing frontier exploration approach, working in under-explored terrains and trialling new exploration methods,” Petratherm Exploration Manager Peter Reid said.

“The results provide strong evidence that the northern Gawler Craton is fertile for ionic clay hosted rare earth mineralisation.“

The company was preparing to commence a 10,000-metre RAB drilling program at Comet in about three weeks to infill REE anomalous areas.

It will also test deeper extensions of the current RAB drill intercepts and expand the regional program into nearby areas.

Petratherm said the exploration work could potentially lead to an initial JORC mineral resource estimate within six months.

PTR shares had soared 138 per cent to 15.5 cents as of 12:55 pm AEST.