お知らせ • Nov 03
Narryer Metals Limited Announces It Has Obtained Pulp Samples and Sample Chip Trays of Previous Reverse Circulation (Rc) Drilling from the Rocky Gully Rare Earth Elements (Ree) Project
Narryer Metals Limited announced it has obtained pulp samples and sample chip trays of previous reverse circulation (RC) drilling from the Rocky Gully Rare Earth Elements (REE) Project. This will significantly reduce the initial cost of exploration of the project, as well as the time it would have taken to redrill the holes. The new sample material will enable the Company to further scope the extent of mineralisation across the tenure where REE analysis was not previously performed in the historic drilling and enable the Company to begin early-stage metallurgical test work on known mineralised material. The focus of work will be on rare earth recovery using a simple acid leach approach. The Company also plans to begin surface sampling to delineate new drill targets, as well as investigate carbonatite hosted REE potential in the bedrock geology. Narryer Metals recently entered1 into an option agreement to acquire 100% ownership of the project. Historic exploration drilling shows significant REE mineralisation in saprolite, with geological logging and geochemistry suggesting the potential for ionic absorbed clay hosted REE mineralisation. The Rocky Gully REE Project comprises two exploration tenements (EL 70/5037 and EL 70/6140) covering ~ 78 km2 in total area, hosted in the Proterozoic western Albany-Fraser Mobile Belt of Western Australia. The project is located on farming and plantations land, ~ 43 km west of Mt Barker and 80 km north-west of the port town of Albany. The hardrock geology of the Rocky Gully area is dominated by orthogneisses, with lesser metasediment, metavolcanics, and granites of the Birunip Gneissic Suite, as well as later phase mafic-ultramafic intrusives. The project sits near major tectonic scale-structures. While some of the area is covered by a thin sedimentary overburden of 1m to 5m, much of the area has laterite formed at surface, with regolith profile containing pallid zone and saprolite observed in drilling 20 to 40m in depth. These saprolite zones are the typical host for ionic absorption clay REE. At the Ivar Prospect, previous RC drilling by Herron Resources2 predominately intersected a sequence of biotite-rich pyroxene gneissic rocks of the Proterozoic Biranup Gneiss Complex. In addition, the drilling also identified carbonatite intrusives and related alteration. Carbonatite intrusive are often associated with Rare Earth Elements (REE), with examples being Mt Weld (ASX: LYN) and the recent discovery in the West Arunta by WA1 Resources (ASX: WA1). The Company will further evaluate the potential for bedrock REE mineralisation related to carbonatites at Rocky Gully. The bedrock geochemistry from this drilling do show anomalism in REE. The historic magnetic data also appears to demonstrate a late intrusive feature (magnetic low), which has been inadequately tested. The clay hosted REE mineralisation present at Ivar Prospect in the saprolite appears to be a regolith enrichment of the anomalous REE protolith bedrock. Of the 16 RC drillholes at the Ivar Prospect assayed for REE, 15 holes intersected significant REE mineralisation in the top 40m of depth. The mineralisation is hosted in saprolite and lateritic clays (Figure 3) and is often seen from the surface. These intersections are rich in `high value' magnet rare earths (Pr, Nd, Tb, Dy), and extend over a ~ 1.5km strike length. Narryer Metals has now accessed pulps for a further six Herron Resources drill holes at the Ivar Prospect, which were originally not assayed for REE, and have now been submitted to ALS laboratories in Perth for new analyses. Pulps are the final material once homogenised, crushed, and ground for assay analysis. Usually, a portion is retained for any further work and is around 200g of the original drill sample. The assay results are expected in 2 weeks. The Company has also been able to access the pulp material for several of the mineralised drill holes at the Ivar Prospect. With this material, the Company will now commence scoping testwork for rare earth recovery using a direct acid leach. The work will be undertaken at ANSTO (Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Minerals, a leading government organisation which research metallurgy /processing for uranium, lithium and REE. Representative geological subsets have been composited over several drill holes to be tested. This testing will take 6 weeks to be completed. The outcome of the program will be to determine the degree of REE mineralisation at Rocky Gully that is ionic adsorption, and therefore potentially processed at low cost. The Rollo and Ragnar Prospects at Rocky Gully (Figure 2) were previously drilled (29 holes for total of ~ 1600 m) to target both laterite and sulphide Ni-Cu-Cu mineralisation. RC drilling by Herron Resources and PLD Corporation4 identified anomalous Ni, Cu, Co and PGE related to weathered mafic-ultramafic intrusives. Drilling by PLD Corporation includes best results4 of 1m @ 2% Ni, 0.05% Co from 64m, (Drillhole M20RC001) and 3m @ 0.6% Ni, 0.07% Co from 8m (Drillhole M20RC003). Herron Resources also identified Ni and Cu sulphides in thin section from bedrock RC chip samples from the Ragnar Prospect. Narryer Metals is currently assessing the Ni-Cu-Co-PGE prospectivity of the tenure. The Company also recently obtained pulps for six of the Herron Resources drillholes from the Ragnar Prospect, which are currently being assayed for REE at ALS laboratory, Perth. There are no REE assays previously reported in any of the historic drilling at these two prospect areas. In addition, work will begin on testing metre intervals from RC chip trays now obtained for 20 drill holes at both Ragnar and Rollo Prospects with a portable XRF. Historically, Anglo American Prospecting, Herron Resources, PLD Corporation and Metallicity have completed surface geochemistry over the tenement areas, where Ni, Cu and Co anomalism is evident5,6. There are light REE Ce (+/- La) analysed in assay suites in several of the sampling programs reviewed by Narryer Metals, detailed in historic exploration reports made available on the WA Mines Department open file system - WAMEX. The Company is currently assessing these historic surface geochemistry programs, and has commenced further surface sampling itself, to include a full REE assay suite. The establishment of REE mineralisation at Rollo and Ragna Prospects would provide additional exploration targets going forward.