Dreadnought (ASX:DRE) raise the carbonatite calibre
Dreadnought Resources’ infill drilling has returned more top-end assays from high-grade zones of rare earth and niobium at the C3 and C5 carbonatites within its fully owned Mangaroon project in the West Australian Gascoyne.
An initial resource from C3 remains on target for next month, and new results including a 113m @ 1.13% TREO strike with a 23% NdPr to TREO ratio further build on last week’s batch of assays which had already demonstrated the lofty potential for thick, high-grade zones of critical minerals.
Dreadnought Managing Director Dean Tuck said ongoing drilling along the 6.5km by 1km stretch of carbonatites could well deliver additional high-grade zones.
“Despite only completing a third of the first pass drilling, the large scale of the critical metal opportunity at Mangaroon is already apparent,” Mr Tuck said.
“Furthermore, we are extremely excited to have international carbonatite expert Pete Siegfried reviewing our work to date and providing insights to assist follow up work programs across our carbonatite targets,” he added.
Geologists with experience with economic rare earth deposits are far rarer than the minerals themselves, and Mr Siegfried holds a wealth of knowledge in the area, recently a collaborating on a HiTech AlkCarb project which successfully looked at new ways to explore better and deeper for carbonatite-hosted critical metals.
Dreadnought consider the carbonatites to be the source of its large-scale Yin REE Ironstone Complex which put it on the rare earth radar as an emerging discovery-maker, and the Perth-based company has already raised the Yin Resource by 40 per cent this month as it looks towards multiple upgrades throughout the rest of 2023.
Plan view of the C1-C5 carbonatites over a greyscale magnetic image
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