OD6 Metals has identified 16km of clays at its Centre prospect and more than 11km at its Prop target during third-phase drilling across its flagship Splinter Rock rare earths project near Esperance in Western Australia.
Management says the clay thickness it observed initially, correlate with and validate data obtained from a recent air-borne electromagnetic survey completed at the site.
Previous drilling identified widths of between 4km and 5km at both prospects, with early observations suggesting the strong potential for a mineral resource expansion and a classification upgrade as soon as next quarter.
Just last month, OD6 unveiled a maiden mineral resource of 344 million tonnes at 1308 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) for the flagship operation in just over a year since its market listing.
The latest campaign saw 145 air-core (AC) holes sunk at the two main prospects for 7435m at an average depth of 51m and a maximum depth of 104m. Several holes were not completed due to wet ground conditions, but they will be revisited during a fourth phase of drilling.
In a welcome boost, management says it received $180,000 from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, through its Exploration Incentive Scheme, in co-funded support for its latest round of drilling that helped facilitate the campaign.
This third phase of drilling at our flagship Splinter Rock Project program continues the advancement of our key Centre and Prop Prospect areas. Our focus was to further test the significant length of these areas, whilst also determining the continuity of grade and thickness of clay extensions. OD6 Metals managing director Brett Hazelden
The company’s impressive maiden resource is based on less than 5 per cent of its targeted clay basin area at the 2579-square-kilometre operation, using a cut-off grade of 1000ppm TREO. It has identified four specific prospect areas – its Centre, Scrum, Prop and Flanker targets – from drilling and geophysics that have contributed to the new resource.
The completed exploration campaign at Splinter Rock focused on infill drilling to upgrade the company’s current inferred mineral resource into the indicated category. Follow-up metallurgical testing will be used to design an appropriate flowsheet based on an open-pit mining method. Earlier this year, OD6 recorded notable recovery rates from multiple prospects to a high of 96 per cent magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO). Prop showed recoveries of between 44 per cent and 96 per cent MREO at an average of 71 per cent, while Centre achieved rates of between 54 per cent and 78 per cent, also at an average recovery of 71 per cent.
Magnet rare earths include neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium – all elements that are critical for the manufacture of industrial magnets used in electric vehicle engines.
Splinter Rock is about 150km north-east of Esperance and comprises six exploration licences. OD6 also holds the Grass Patch project about 100km north-west of Esperance, with a tenement area of more than 2200 sq km.
Clay-style rare earths found in the Esperance area are considered attractive as they have less complex processing requirements, driving down beneficiation expenses and reducing the time required to scrub up the raw materials into usable end products.
With assays from the latest round of drilling at Splinter Rock due this quarter, all eyes will be on the upcoming results to see the potential size OD6 can add to its already impressive resource at the operation.
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