Viridis Mining & Minerals has started the New Year with a bang after recording its best total rare earth oxides (TREO) result to date from drilling at the Capão da Onça prospect within its Colossus project in Brazil.
The company says the high-grade assays from its maiden auger and diamond drilling represent a “breakthrough” discovery in the unexplored western area of the alkaline complex where it holds about 14 square kilometres of ground.
Auger drilling highlights show a 7m intercept going 8227 parts per million TREO from just 1m including a 4m hit at 9447ppm TREO from 3m and ending in mineralisation at a grade of 8275ppm TREO. The 4m section also included 35 per cent magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO) of the total TREO grade.
Additional auger results from Capão da Onça include 6m at 5248ppm TREO from surface, ending in 3646ppm TREO, 10m reading 3338ppm TREO from 1m and 13m going 3187ppm TREO from surface. Diamond drilling at the target also yielded positive results with a 10m section grading 3551ppm within a wider 15m intercept at 2712ppm TREO from surface.
Further diamond drilling at Viridis’ Fazenda and Cupim South prospects shows mineralisation at the targets extends beyond previous auger results with a 48.5m hit at 2662ppm TREO from surface including 33.5m going 3091ppm TREO – the best result to date at Fazenda. A second diamond hole revealed a 62.5m segment reading 2218ppm TREO from surface including 27m grading 2903ppm TREO.
The company also conducted more auger drilling across three other licenses, returning significant results with a 5m section at 5313ppm from 2m including 2m going 6924ppm TREO from 5m and ending in mineralisation grading 6646ppm TREO. An 11m hit reading 5081ppm TREO from surface was also recorded including 5m at 7622ppm from 6m and ending in mineralisation grades of 7790ppm TREO.
These are the best results we’ve seen within our Northern Concessions to date and re-affirms that Colossus is a world-class project. Numerous auger holes have ended in the last few metres at 4000-7500+ ppm which demonstrates the potential for Viridis to grow the understanding of a world-class IAC ore body with deeper drilling.
Viridis Mining & Minerals executive chairman Agha Shahzad Pervez
Shazad Pervez said auger drilling had been effective in helping identify the company’s highest-grade areas to date and the work will be quickly followed by deeper reverse-circulation(RC) and diamond drilling.
Management says the impressive assays from auger and diamond drilling at its rare earths project in Brazil prove widespread ionic-adsorption clay (IAC) mineralisation at the operation.
Colossus is in a good neighbourhood sitting alongside Meteoric Resources’ Caldeira rare earths project, which hosts a JORC-compliant mineral resource of a massive 409 million tonnes at 2626ppm TREO. Late last year, Viridis increased its previous 91sq-km holding in the emerging mineral district of Minas Gerais by a further 5388 hectares to bring its total concessions in the area to 144.57sq km.
The company has more than 100 auger holes, 34 adapted-RC holes and 19 diamond holes awaiting assays, with exploration drilling set to begin again soon at its northern concessions and Cupim South prospect.
Diamond drilling will start the New Year at the Centro Sul prospect, followed by the Capão da Onça deposit. Metallurgical sampling has also begun and samples from multiple diamond cores will be sent for in-depth analysis for optimised metallurgical leaching tests with ammonium sulfate.
In all, Colossus is starting to appear ready to live out the true meaning of its name.
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