Lindian Resources continues to pull impressive assays from its Kangankunde project in Malawi with the latest drill results highlighting a 3m hit at a whopping 15.6 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 69m.
The high-grade intercept is contained within a larger 26m section grading 6.15 per cent TREO from 58m and includes a 1m segment at a head-turning 18.76 per cent TREO from 71m. The company is currently extending the hole through core drilling to investigate the full extent of the intersection.
While the impressive 3m hit was the standout of the recent results, Lindian continues to record wide intercepts at the Malawi operation with the latest highlights showing a 167m section grading 2.85 per cent TREO from surface including 134m going 3.18 per cent TREO from surface.
Another 175m intersection came in at 2.31 per cent TREO, also from surface, including a 29m intercept at 2.93 per cent TREO from 127m and a 5m hit going 3.28 per cent TREO from 162m. The 175m section was recorded at the southern zone of the operation in an area with no historical exploration. A further 160m hit produced 2.04 per cent TREO from surface including 126m going 2.82 per cent TREO from 62.2m.
The company is currently undertaking phase one of its 12,500m resource definition drill out, including 10,000m of RC drilling and a further 2500m of diamond drilling to test the mineralisation to a depth of 300m. A total of 11,200m has been completed with results from 43 holes still pending. Lindian is already considering phase two of its drill campaign at Kangankunde with two exceptionally deep one kilometre long drill holes planned to commence in the second half of the year.
Lindian Resources Chief Executive Officer, Alistair Stephens said: “Concurrently with the mine development drill program and the metallurgy, we are advancing investigations into a low capex, first phase production facility which we are targeting to have operational in 2024 given we are fully permitted to commence mining operations.”
Kangankunde is considered one of the world’s largest rare earths operations outside China and hosts an outdated resource of 2.53 million tonnes grading 4.24 per cent total rare earths oxide for 107,000 tonnes of contained rare earths when using a cut-off grade of 3.5 per cent. It is a carbonatite-hosted system and notably, the mineralisation is exposed at surface and still open at depth.
Lindian has consistently produced wide drill hits at the site with the majority of holes beginning and ending in mineralisation. In January, the company produced a massive 300m section at 2.31 per cent TREO from surface.
The ratio of the highly sought after industrial magnet rare earths, neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr), in the total concentrate at the project is about 19 per cent and a mining licence has already been secured for the site. The ratio of NdPr in the latest results came in at around 21 per cent. The explorer says all assays show very low levels of nuisance radioactive materials, uranium and thorium.
Metallurgical test work is now underway in Perth and importantly, the company expects to deliver its highly anticipated maiden mineral resource estimate for Kangankunde in the next quarter.
By any measure, Lindian’s new rare earths project in Malawi has been a screaming success.
In May last year, its shares were trading at a low of just 2.7c and after touching a high of 36c a share in September, its current price of around 28c still represents a “ten-bagger” result for those who punted early on the company and its entrepreneurial Chairman Asimwe Kabunga finding a new project.
Whether it is crazy-long drill hits or serious grades, Lindian’s Kangankunde project has the market watching. In an era when anything associated with electric vehicles sets pulses racing, rare earths that are contained within the industrial magnets that drive those engines are front and centre and with 300m drill hits, Lindian looks like it has plenty.
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By Matt Birney
