Lycaon hits likely shear-hosted rare earths at remote WA

Lycaon Resources’ recently completed scout drillhole at its Stansmore target in remote Western Australia to test a magnetic anomaly has intercepted 1 metre at 425 parts per million (ppm) combined niobium, neodymium and praseodymium and 217ppm yttrium and ytterbium from 302 metres depth.

The zone is also associated with up to 12 per cent sulphides and weakly elevated multi-element geochemistry in silver, arsenic, bismuth, cerium, cobalt, copper, lead, yttrium and ytterbium within a mafic intrusive with trace sulphides in fresh rock below 80m depth. 

Possible supergene copper and silver concentrations of 1.5 per cent copper and silver to 1.5 grams per tonne (g/t) were also identified at the base of oxidation.

While zones of elevated sulphides and chlorite alteration were logged, no rocks resembling carbonatites were noted in drill chips. 

The 324m-deep reverse circulation drillhole was completed last December and was designed to test the core of a regionally distinctive, 500m diameter magnetic anomaly in a small exploration licence 1.7 kilometres west of the company’s main tenement block in WA’s remote West Arunta region. 

Lycaon was awarded a co-funding grant of up to $180,000 in April last year to drill the Stansmore target under Round 29 of the West Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme.

The company’s target selection was inspired by recent discoveries in the West Arunta region by WA1 Resources and Encounter Resources showing some carbonatite intrusions in the region have the potential to host significant niobium and rare earth elements.

Lycaon Resource’s executive director James Robinson said: “With the co-funding grant, Lycaon was able to test the Stansmore target in a timely and cost-efficient manner and although these results were not as significant as we were hoping for, Lycaon’s West Arunta Stansmore project does contain several other substantial and unexplained geophysical anomalies which remain untested, demonstrating the under-explored nature of this region.” 

Lycaon’s Stansmore anomaly exhibits geophysical characteristics - such as magnetic profiles - similar to and sometimes even indistinguishable from other local carbonatite intrusions that have been found to host significant niobium-rare earths mineral assemblages.

Carbonatites comprise a suite of rock types typically containing more than 50 per cent carbonate minerals, such as calcite, dolomite, ankerite, magnesite or siderite. They also commonly contain minor phosphates, oxides and silicates.

They are usually low in silica and are generally recognised as hosting some of the earth’s highest concentrations of rare earth elements among the igneous rock series of deep magmatic origin. 

Carbonatites exist in many intrusive forms such as extensive plutons, or smaller plugs, pipes, sills, cone sheets, dykes and veins and they may also be present as lava flows or even as pyroclastic fall deposits around volcanic complexes.

Because they are now recognised as key hosts of rare earth elements and niobium, all of which are listed critical minerals in many countries, recent years have seen an upsurge in exploration activity for carbonatites.   

Lycaon’s main tenement block encloses five other magnetic anomalies apart from Stansmore. The next two most pronounced Volt and Ion magnetic anomalies are in the extreme north of the tenement. 

While their magnetic signatures are smaller than the Stansmore signature, in the context of their similarity to carbonatite intrusives, they both remain justifiable targets for scout drilling. 

Three other weaker magnetic anomalies in the southeast corner of the exploration licence, Edi, Earl and Menlo, lie on northwest-southeast linear trending weakly magnetic structures. Their provenance and associations are more difficult to estimate without the benefit of further work, which might include target-refining geophysics and/or scout drilling. 

Lycaon believes the overall result is likely to be shear-related and at this stage it is not considered of sufficient significance to justify follow-up drilling.

The company says it will continue to assess its other West Arunta targets to determine its next steps, while at the same time continuing to evaluate new project acquisition opportunities.

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