Announcement • Jun 24
Meryllion Resources Corporation Reports Promising Rare Earth Assay Drill Results in Tasmania
Meryllion Resources Corporation announced promising assay results from its initial shallow scout drilling program at its northeastern Tasmanian ionic adsorption clay hosted rare earths project. Russell’s Plains (Launceston) scout drilling has delivered encouraging results and confirms that the rare earth system the company is targeting exists within the project area. Russell’s Plain drill target sits along strike of the Portrush IAC hosted REE project of the Abx Group. Drilling highlights include drill interval with maximum grade up to 879 ppm TREO. This is around the typical head grade of Australian ionic REE clay deposits. Five of the twelve holes contain Rare Earth assays above the cut-off grade (> 350 ppm TREO-CeO2 ppm) for resources from the nearby Deep Leads ionic clay REE Deposit. In majority of cases, the shallow nature of this drilling program (often <5m depth) only pierced the top of the potential mineralised system, with the bottom of hole ending in mineralisation. Scandium mineralisation also identified in several drill holes, with grades up to 164 ppm Sc2O3. Scandium is a high value (USD 1,200-USD 3,800 per Kg for scandium oxide) critical element used in aluminium alloy technologies and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The strongest REE results came from holes RRP09, RRP13, and RRP14, which returned the highest rare earth values and demonstrate that the mineralised system is active across the prospect area at Russel’s Plain. Five of the twelve drillholes demonstrated grades above 350ppm TREO-CeO2, which would fall within the cutoff of all the IAC Rare Earth JORC resources elsewhere in Australia. Given the shallowness of the depths the drilling finished, potentially only the top of the mineralised system is being intersected. This included 1.3m @ 840 ppm TREO from 3m, with end of hole in mineralisation (Drillhole RRP014), 4m @ 625 ppm TREO from 2m and 0.3m @ 835 ppm TREO from 9m with end of hole in mineralisation (Drillhole RRP013), 0.5m @ 862 ppm TREO from 3m, with end of hole in mineralisation (Drillhole RRP009). These head grades are consistent with other known ionic REE clay deposits in Australia. Scandium mineralisation has also been identified from this scout drilling, with maximum grade of 164 ppm Sc2O3. The best three drill holes showed intersections of 5m @ 133 ppm Sc2O3 from surface, with end of hole in mineralisation (Drillhole RRP002), 2m @ 100 ppm Sc2O3 from surface (Drillhole RRP015), 4m @ 96 ppm Sc2O3 from 1m, with end of hole in mineralisation (Drillhole RRP016). These grade as similar to other clay-hosted Scandium + REE projects currently being evaluated in Australia. Scandium is considered a Rare Earth and is mainly used in high technology aluminium alloys in the aviation, military, aerospace, semiconductor and energy technology sectors. The USGS quote a price range between USD 1,200 to USD 3,800 per kg for scandium oxide in recent years. China recently put export controls on the commodity, coinciding with recent tariff retaliation to the US. Meryllion will be following up the initial reconnaissance program with additional drilling, targeting what has been identified as likely to host higher-grade mineralisation at Russel’s Plain, as well as the untested Brushy Lagoon and Ready March target areas, which adjoin the Deep Lead and Windbreak Resources of the ABx Group. Work is underway to source a new drill rig for deeper ground penetration, for the next program. The Project is hosted in highly sought rare earth-rich ionic adsorption clay hosted deposits comprising Jurassic Dolerites and Basalts and provides significant upside potential for economic rare earth magnet metals. Globally, most rare earths are sourced from hard-rock mines. These typically require large, costly processing plants and a significant lead time to reach production. A less common source of rare earths is ionic adsorption clay (IAC) deposits. Historically, these have only been mined in southern China. A major advantage of IAC deposits is that the rare earths can be extracted from the clay via a simple leaching process. Secondly, they often exist at shallow depth. These advantages enable a project to be developed rapidly and at lower cost. Furthermore, IAC deposits are relatively richer in the rare earths needed for permanent magnets, and they typically contain low concentrations of radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium. Reported rare earth element significant mineralised intervals in this news release are calculated as down-hole length-weighted intercepts using ~350 ppm TREO-CEO lower cut-off grade and generally carry a maximum internal dilution of 1m. No top-cut grade was applied. For scandium intersection, a down-hole length-weighted intercept using ~90 ppm Sc2O3 lower cut-off grade. True widths of drill hole intercepts are yet to be determined; however, it is estimated that true widths are in the range of 70% to 95% of reported intervals. TREO (Total Rare Earth Oxides) values were calculated by the formula: TREO = CeO2 + La2O3 + Nd2O3 + Pr6O11 + Sm2O3 + Gd2O3 + Dy2O3 + Eu2O3 + Er2O3 + Tb4O7 + Ho2O3 + Tm2O3 + Lu2O3 + Yb2O3 + Y2O3. MREO (Magnet Rare Earth Oxides) values were calculated by the formula: TREO = Nd2O3 + Pr6O11 + Sm2O3 + Gd2O3 + Dy2O3 + Tb4O7 + Ho2O3. Standard element to oxide conversion factors have been used in the calculation of rare earth oxide values from elemental assay values.
