- Vital Metals (VML) has received outstanding results from a drilling and re-assaying program at its Nechalacho Rare Earth Project in Canada
- Drilling aimed to define the Bastnaesite sub zone within the North T zone
- Managing Director Geoff Atkins defined the results as one of the highest grades of any rare earth project in the world
- Among the rare earth contents were neodymium and praseodymium which are high-purity magnetic alloys
- These results will be included in the updated JORC resource which is due by the end of March
- Vital Metals is up a healthy 22.2 per cent with shares trading for 1.1 cents each
Vital Metals (VML) has received outstanding results from a 2019 drilling and re-assaying program at its Nechalacho Rare Earth Project in Canada.
Drilling was conducted at the North T zone which is a small, high-grade, rare earth oxide (REO) deposit. It contains two zones of REO mineralisation, a Bastnaesite Subzone near the surface with an underlying Xenotime Subzone.
Vital completed 19 shallow diamond core holes for 794 metres. Additionally, a total of 38 holes and 86.7 metres of historical diamond core was re-assayed for the full suite of rare earth elements.
Best results include: 2.4 metres at 38.4 total rare earth oxides (TREO) (8.1 per cent Nd Pr) from 13 metres, 5.1 metres at 22.99 per cent TREO (5.2 per cent Nd Pr) from 12 metres, 5.4 metres at 19 per cent TREO (4.3 per cent Nd Pr) from 2 metres and 2.4 metres at 29.6 per cent TREO (6.9 per cent Nd Pr) from 26 metres.
“The exceptional REO grades, with up to 8.1% [Neodymium Praseodymium], are being reported almost at surface, an ideal outcome for our plan to produce a high-grade REO concentrate from Nechalacho,” Managing Director Geoff Atkins said.
The project has a light rare earth oxides resource of 94.7 million tonnes at 1.46 per cent TREO in the measured, indicated and inferred JORC 2012 categories.
“These results are particularly significant – among the highest grades of any rare earth project in the world,” Geoff said.
Bastnaesite mineralisation at North T shows positive concentration and metallurgical characteristics with 97 per cent recoveries of the rare earths into solution through sulphuric acid leach.
The company believes the mineralisation is one of the very few REO project in the world where mineralisation can produce a higher than 35 per cent grade REO concentrate through conventional ore sorting technology without the higher costs of using of chemicals or water.
Results from this program will be incorporated into an updated JORC resource which is due before the end of this quarter.
Vital Metals is up a healthy 22.2 per cent with shares trading for 1.1 cents each at 2:28 pm AEDT.