Red Metal drilling hits thick rare earth | Australian Markets

Purple Steel’s latest infill drilling program has unearthed thick intersections of helpful magnet uncommon earths on the Kary zone within the company’s Sybella project, 20 kilometres from the Queensland mining city of Mount Isa.

A number of long intervals up to 162 metres thick containing the 4 magnet metals have been encountered from floor or shallow depths from the infill drilling, with many holes ending in mineralisation.

The constant mineralised hits produced a number of standout intervals, together with a whopping 162m run grading 337 elements per million (ppm) of neodymium-praseodymium and 30ppm of the more helpful heavy uncommon earth metals dysprosium-terbium from 18m to finish of gap.

An interval of 108m going 349ppm neodymium-praseodymium and 38ppm dysprosium-terbium from floor to finish of gap, together with 72m at 338ppm neodymium-praseodymium and 34ppm dysprosium-terbium from floor point out the sizeable width of mineralisation discovered within the project’s ground.

Administration beforehand outlined the invention of an japanese zone, now referred to as Kary zone, extending for more than 4.8km alongside strike and with a width of up to 1.5km.

A 7.2km-long Western zone, now referred to as Templeton, includes widths various from 400m to more than 1.6km that show the project’s uncommon earths potential.

The interpreted floor areas on the web site are a minimum of 3.6km for the japanese zone that is still open to the southeast and seven.6km for the western zone.

Administration says the overall magnet uncommon earth grades and widths from the current infill program align with earlier outcomes from drilling to the north and south and enhance its confidence even additional in an inferred useful resource revealed in October.

Purple Steel is now eagerly awaiting the outcomes from pH optimisation bottle-roll leach exams accomplished on composite samples from this marketing campaign, due in March, to find out the optimum low-acid answer to make use of in its subsequent stage column leach testwork.

The vitally important column leach testing is the company’s present precedence. It plans to copy the end result from a heap leaching course of, which might usually take months to maximise the extraction of steel from the ore. Heap leaching is anticipated for use for processing at scale if the project strikes into a mining operation.

Outcomes from column leach testing can take a comparable period and are pricey to attain, so it’s important to have nailed down the proper low-acid answer to optimise outcomes straight off the bat.

Plans are underway to acquire enough ore for the column leach testing by drilling giant diameter diamond core holes.

The company is aiming to have the column leach testwork accomplished by mid-year.

The infill program was cut short resulting from a giant bush fire on the project space close to the tip of the sector season. Three separate strains of drilling have been accomplished throughout the japanese Kary zone.

Administration believes drill spacing within the three accomplished strains is enough to qualify it for an indicated useful resource standing. It says the consistency of the mineralisation warrants drilling the remaining portion of the world it was unable to entry due to the fire.

Purple Metals plans to make use of its mixed drill ends in its calculations to improve the general zone to the indicated class.

Confirming the continuity of the vast zones of higher-grade uncommon earth mineralisation at Sybella is an important step in the direction of realising its potential for bulk tonnage heap leach mining. Repeating our optimistic early-stage metallurgical outcomes with pH optimisation exams on composited samples consultant of a bigger space is the following key step.

The company beforehand carried out intermittent bottle-roll exams on reverse circulation (RC) drill chips from weathered and recent granite samples, which confirmed the ore to be ultimate for a heap leach processing operation.

It final 12 months engaged metallurgical specialists ANSTO Minerals to validate its breakthrough leach outcomes utilizing chip samples from Sybella.

The company says ANSTO’s supplementary findings back up its section one testwork – accomplished by Core Sources and revealed early in 2024 – that confirmed high recoveries and low impurities utilizing low ranges of acid consumption for each helpful magnet and heavy uncommon earth oxides.

Promising early metallurgical testing signifies that 21 per cent of the project’s mineral basket worth comes from high-demand heavy uncommon earth components, corresponding to dysprosium and terbium.

Purple Steel has tabled a large 4.8-billion-tonne uncommon earths useful resource for the Sybella project at 302ppm neodymium-praseodymium and 28ppm dysprosium-terbium, utilizing a 200ppm neodymium-praseodymium cut-off grade.

By rising the cut-off grade to 360ppm neodymium-praseodymium , the useful resource was estimated at 209 million tonnes grading 377ppm neodymium-praseodymium and 34ppm dysprosium-terbium.

Administration says the majority of the useful resource materials begins at floor and stays open at depths beneath 100m, which supplies an option for early, low-cost mining.

The company believes ample granite-hosted mushy ore in its ground supplies the Sybella project with a compelling edge and provides easy crushing and processing choices.

The Sybella deposit sits on 12km-by-3km granite-pervasive ground with ore vulnerable to easy low-temperature processing, pointing to a probability of a low-capex operation.

If Purple Steel can keep increasing the dimensions of the prize and get the processing facet proper, the sky may properly be the restrict for Sybella.

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