Rare-earth projects report abundant resources.
Brazil- and Latin America-focused phosphate and fertiliser producer MBAC Fertilizer on Tuesday said it had established a combined measured and indicated mineral resource of 6.34-million tons, grading 5.01% total rare-earth oxides for the Araxá project, in Brazil.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Brazil- and Latin America-focused phosphate and fertiliser producer MBAC Fertilizer on Tuesday said it had established a combined measured and indicated mineral resource of 6.34-million tons, grading 5.01% total rare-earth oxides for the Araxá project, in Brazil.
Using a cutoff grade of 2%, the National Instrument 43-101-compliant combined resource comprises 8.4% phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) and 1.02% niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5).
The inferred mineral resource is estimated at 21.94-million tons at 3.99% total rare-earth oxides, 7.86% P2O5 and 0.64% Nb2O5 .
Further, of the established resource, the project includes a total of about 2.4% heavy rare-earth oxides, including yttrium.
TheTSX-listed company said laboratory tests for an acid-leaching process achieved an average 85% recovery to produce a high-quality rare-earth oxide bulk concentrate.
“These results confirm our expectations that the Araxá deposit is a significant resource base of rare-earth oxides, with a high grade when compared with other deposits globally.
“MBAC is planning to prepare a preliminary economic assessment for the project, which is expected to be released in the third quarter, and to put in place a pilot plant to confirm our laboratory estimates and high-purity rare-earth oxide concentrate,” CEO Antenor Silva said in a statement.
The company added that it had already started discussions with third parties over offtake agreements.
Meanwhile, Vancouver-based Elissa Resources also announced its first-pass drilling programme on its fully owned Thor project, in southern Nevada, and the discovery of discovered a possible extensive rare-earth-element-bearing alkali granite/syenite unit in the northern part of the Lopez Trend.
The property is located about 23 km east of Molycorp’s Mountain Pass rare-earth mine and processing facilities in nearby California.
Elissa said its exploration team intersected lengthy intervals of rare-earth element mineralisation, including 9.8 m of 1.05% total rare-earth oxide with a 1.8 m zone containing 3.28% total rare-earth oxides.
About 90% of the Lopez trend and a large number of outlying rare-earth element targets on the property remain untested.
“We are encouraged by these results on our Thor project and are especially pleased that the drilling has confirmed rare-earth element-mineralisation that is strongly enriched in the valuable heavy rare-earth oxides. We believe we are at the early stage of defining what could be a very large rare-earth-bearing system and are planning a second-phase programme to examine areas and test concepts discerned from our ongoing exploration,” Elissa CEO Paul McKenzie said.
Elissa also owns a 100% interest in the Ulysses project located in eastern Idaho and south-western Montana, and has an option to earn a 100% interest in the St Elmo gold project, in Nevada. |
