Viridis Mining & Minerals has returned its best results to date from drilling at its Smoky halloysite-kaolin project in New South Wales, with a 1m section grading an impressive 95.9 per cent halloysite from 4m.
The high-grade hit also returned 95.1 per cent kaolin and was within a wider 13m section grading 86.1 per cent halloysite, including seven 1m intercepts greater than 90 per cent.
The company completed an initial seven-hole drill program at Smoky during March and April, with 1m samples sent to the James Hutton Institute in Scotland for analysis. Previously, 10 samples of 1m intervals from the drilling were examined by detailed X-ray diffraction analysis and confirmed up to 91.6 per cent halloysite.
Management says the latest data shows outstanding halloysite grades exist in thicknesses up to 13m, with results for adjoining samples still pending.
Drilling in July returned a 4m intercept going 63 per cent halloysite from 7m, including a 1m hit at an impressive 85.3 per cent from 7m. A 1m segment grading 65.3 per cent kaolin from 4m was also recorded from the same campaign at Smoky.
We are pleased to have received further assays on our drill holes which have increased both grades and thicknesses of halloysite mineralisation. Viridis remains focused on the development of work programs at the Colossus Rare Earth Project in Pocos De Caldas, however, these results continue adding further value to our portfolio of assets. The work programs completed at Smoky provide substantial understanding of the halloysite mineralisation and geology with minimal resources expended. Viridis Mining & Minerals executive chairman Agha Shahzad Pervez
The Smoky project consists of a single exploration licence that covers 6 square kilometres in the upper Hunter Valley region of NSW. The tenement contains a historic halloysite quarry and potentially covers more than 3km strike length within a known and unique kaolin‐halloysite-bearing sequence.
Viridis says the operation has been subjected to only limited modern exploration.
In 1970, Commercial Minerals identified halloysite in four trenches. During 1983 and1984, historic records show two drill holes were completed, with one logged to contain kaolinite clayrock from surface to 23m, while the other contained halloysite from 11m to 14.5m. Metakaolin was also identified from 21m to 26.5m and kaolinite featured from 27m to 43m.
The company also fully owns the Poochera kaolin play in South Australia that sits alongside Andromeda Metals’ Great White project, which has a mineral resource of 36.4 million tonnes at 40.9 per cent kaolinite and 5.3 per cent halloysite. It is also just 20km from Andromeda’s Hammerhead deposit at 51.5 million tonnes grading 42.7 per cent kaolinite and 6.5 per cent halloysite.
Poochera covers 329sq km, with Viridis completing a maiden 55-hole drill campaign at the site in October last year and confirming the presence of the Philips kaolin deposit.
Management says halloysite is a form of kaolinite that commands a significantly high sales price in industrial applications. Its uses include controlled-release drug delivery, nutrient and methane adsorption in the cattle industry, carbon capture by adsorption at various pressures, premium medical-grade ceramics and depending on the purity, it can also be an excellent feedstock for high-purity alumina.
Earlier this month, Viridis recorded impressive assays from auger and diamond drilling at its Colossus rare earths project in Brazil, proving widespread ionic-adsorption clay mineralisation at the operation. Assay highlights returned a 21.5m intercept grading 3195 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO), with a wider 33.5m section at 2509ppm TREO from surface at the company’s Carijo prospect.
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