공시 • Feb 13
Victory Metals Limited Reports Assay Results from Air Core and Reverse Circulation Drill Programs At North Stanmore REE Project
Victory Metals Limited reported the latest assay results from the Air Core (AC) and Reverse Circulation (RC) drill programs at the Company's North Stanmore REE project located approximately 10km north from the town of Cue, Western Australia and bordered to the east by the Great Northern Highway. Upon receiving significantly promoted pXRF analyses from RC hole NSTRC071, the Company expedited samples to the laboratory for analysis with the initial RC assays returned including 1m at 1.08% (10,829ppm) TREO from 39m. The Company has completed over 3,000m of RC drilling for inclusion in a maiden JORC (2012) mineral resource estimate, with the remaining assays still pending. The further assays received from the AC program confirmed a significant average Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) grade of 1023ppm from 1m samples with results up to 10,829ppm with a cut-off of 500ppm. The assays confirm a valuable Heavy Rare Earth Elements ratio of 36% HREO/TREO and critical magnet metals NdPr and DyTb contents of 19.3% and 4.1% of total REE's. The Company has now received approximately 58% of the assays from both AC drilling programs with the remaining assays from the AC, RC and the diamond drilling program at the Company's North Stanmore Alkaline Intrusion expected to be reported in batches through First Quarter 2023. Victory has continued to progress with its exploration activities through harsh climatic conditions on time and within budget. Victory has completed a combined AC/RC drilling program of approximately 20,000m at the North Stanmore project. Fusion ICPMS assays continue to demonstrate REE mineralisation (>500ppm total REYO) present in the majority of the drill holes with very significant contents of the valuable heavy rare earths (DyTb) as well as Scandium. Assays from the latest RC and AC drilling program continue to be reported. All results are expected to be reported by the end of First Quarter 2023 which will continue to benefit the mineral resource (JORC) work by RSC Mineral Exploration in West Perth. Anomalous Y >100ppm (a vector for HREEs) and La and Nd (vectors for LREEs) recorded by p-XRF analysis now cover an area greater than 45km2 across the North Stanmore project. The terminology used in this report for the rare earth element follows the convention of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), whereby the LREE are defined as La, Ce, Pr, Nd and Sm, and the HREE as Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu plus Y. Exploration for ionic clay hosted REE deposits requires an understanding of the behaviour of REEs during oxidation. For example, at the Earth's surface, redox conditions enable Ce to occur in the mobile tetravalent (Ce 4+) state. Thus, Ce is mobile in rocks from active weathering zones and there is a tendency for the uppermost weathering zone to develop an excess in Ce (expressed as a positive Ce anomaly; expressed as Ce/Ce). However, deeper zones generally show a Ce deficit (i.e., negative anomalies), particularly in heavily weathered profiles. 1 Therefore, tetravalent Ce4+ is preferentially removed on oxides, organics and other reactive particles causing the development of strong `negative' Ce anomalies relative to the neighbouring LREEs, La and Pr in the chondrite normalised plots. TREYO data for North Stanmore regolith in >500ppm samples are plotted against Ce/Ce. Ce/Ce ratios <1 reflect the loss of mobile Ce4+ from deeper parts of weathering profiles while Ce/Ce ratios >1 reflect the gain of Ce4+ at shallower regolith levels. It is significant that the majority of assays have negative Ce/Ce anomalies and plot in the field typical of ionic adsorption clay REE deposits in China, Brazil and Madagascar. Importantly ionic clay REE deposits in China, Madagascar and Brazil characterized by containing leachable REEs, all have Ce/Ce ratios of <1. The North Stanmore samples with Ce/Ce <1 are therefore typical of ionic clay REE systems.By contrast, North Stanmore samples with Ce/Ce >1 have strongly promoted TREYO concentrations that reflect the presence of high concentrations of Ce. As a result, although these samples may have promoted TREYO contents (due to Ce gain) they may not be particularly enriched in NdPr, or in the HREEs, and thus may have low HREYO/TREYO ratios. Chondrite normalisation is used in reference to rare earths and other elements to smooth out the variable concentrations in sequential plots caused by the `Oddo- Harkins' effect, i.e, elements with even atomic numbers >5 are more stable and therefore, are more concentrated than elements with odd atomic numbers. Most igneous rocks, show smooth Chondrite-normalised rare earth element (REE) patterns in the light REE (LREE) between lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd) samarium (Sm), gadolinium (Gd) gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb) and lutetium (Lu). Europium (Eu) in many igneous rocks shows a negative or positive spike in the shape of the REE pattern which is commonly interpreted to reflect plagioclase or fluorite removal or gain. Chondrite-normalised graphs are also effective for identifying assaying issues. For example, the geochemical integrity of REE data can be assessed if chondrite normalised plots fail to yield near-smooth patterns.