Rare Earths In Abundance
Commerce Finds Up to 44 Pounds per Ton at Eldor
By Ted Niles
The phrase “more of the same” has an uncharacteristically positive implication when applied to Commerce Resources Corp’s TSXV:CCE Eldor project. In 2010, when analyst John Kaiser of Kaiser Research Online called Eldor “the most important new grassroots rare earth discovery since market interest in rare earths took off in 2009,” the assessment was based on the discovery hole. Since then, much has occurred to vindicate Kaiser’s claim. “Every time we’ve started a new program,” President Dave Hodge remarks, “we had to bring in a different drill, one that would go deeper, because the deposit just seemed to keep going and going. This drill program was no different.”
Commerce acquired Eldor—located in northern Quebec’s Labrador Trough—in 2007 with a focus on tantalum and niobium. In the process, says Hodge, “[We] discovered what we believe will be one of the world’s largest resources of rare earths in a small portion of a very large carbonatite complex.” This is small only relatively—given Eldor’s 19,006 hectares—and is called the Ashram deposit. On March 3, Commerce released an NI 43-101 inferred resource estimate for Ashram of 117.34 million tonnes grading 1.74% total rare earth oxides (TREO) at a 1.25% cut-off. This was based on Commerce’s 2010 12-hole drill campaign, consisting of 3,300 metres.
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