Gold Mountain has found thorium anomalies – which may indicate high-grade rare earths – in four areas up to 250m wide within its Brazilian ground after tests with a new state-of-the-art hand-held spectrometer.
The results from the company’s Ronaldinho project peaked at about 640 counts per second thorium. Management says the thorium hits look at lot like those from known rare earths mineralisation in the area that have graded more than 4 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO).
The recent sampling was carried out along 3.87km of selected roads and tracks at Ronaldinho where the thick weathering profile is interpreted to overlie rare earths-enriched rock. Regional airborne radiometric data suggests the anomalous thorium ground samples are within areas of wider thorium elevation.
Gold Mountain says the latest spectrometer sampling will be followed up with additional traverses in the anomalous region, in addition to stream sediment and channel sampling to confirm rare earths concentrations. Following receipt of those results, the company expects to be back on the ground with an auger drill to take a deeper look.
Management now plans to kick off the stream sediment sampling next month and will aim to get a batch of samples to the lab for analysis on a weekly basis. The lab wait time is estimated at about five to six weeks.
Thorium anomalies are often co-located with areas of TREO enrichment in north-eastern Brazil and Gold Mountain’s other project in the area, Down Under, also shows elevated thorium.
Down Under and Ronaldinho straddle ground being worked by the Gina Rinehart-backed Brazilian Rare Earths, which has thrown up some crazy-high TREO grades up to 40 per cent at the Rocha da Rocha project.
Gold Mountain will be hoping to mirror those types of eye-watering hits in its own ground, which may see some reverse-circulation (RC) drilling in the future if further sampling returns promising results.
The company says the highly-weathered ionic-absorption clays (IAC) at Ronaldinho and Down Under offer free digging within the first 30m to 40m of ground. Management says the mafic-ultramafic bodies and shear zones in the underlying hard rock may hold exceptionally high rare earths grades.
Results from 406 samples from its Down Under project are due back this coming week and some solid news flow should follow in the coming months as assays from the upcoming stream sediment sampling at Ronaldinho flow back.
Management will be hoping it can show the same deft touch with its geological pursuits as the sublimely-skilful Brazilian soccer player its Ronaldinho operation is named after.
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By Andrew Duffy
