Reach Resources has launched its maiden reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent owned Wabli Creek project in WA’s Gascoyne to probe fresh niobium and rare earths targets.
Intriguing and anomalous results previously taken from 74 surface samples during the company’s latest mapping and sampling program set the train in motion and the drill rig is now poised to test what lies beneath.
The sampling results provided the final piece of the puzzle and have defined the drill program’s priority drill targets. Importantly, those sites to emerge at the top of the target list have already received heritage clearance and are now set to feel the bite of the drill bit.
The latest confirmatory samples returned anomalous rare earths values for the magnet rare earth elements neodymium and praseodymium and also for niobium and titanium, all well above background values.
Reach says its geological interpretation of the surface sample results, considering elements of all prior work at Wabli Creek, confirms niobium and rare earths mineralisation occurs within the alkaline granite and its contact with associated north-south trending pegmatites and/or dykes.
Geological mapping and surface sampling now embraces about half of the 15 sqkm exploration licence, with specific focus on granite/dyke contact zones and has identified extensive zones which are anomalous in rare earth oxides, with values up to an impressive 7060ppm Toal Rare Earth Oxides (TREO).
Those surface samples were taken specifically to refine and further confirm Reach’s understanding of granite/dyke contact zones identified from previous geochemical and geophysical analyses.
With mineralisation being proven at the Pelops zone, the latest sampling sought to confirm anomalous geochemistry in additional zones, before the company committed to a final priority listing of drill targets.
Reach Resources chief executive officer Jeremy Bower said: “These latest surface sample results have certainly enhanced our confidence at Wabli Creek. The key for the exploration team has been to understand and try and replicate the Pelops Prospect, where rock chip samples from bedrock have returned assays up to 17.65 per cent niobium pentoxide.”
Management says the company’s exploration team now has a strong understanding of the genesis of mineralisation that has assisted them in confirming drill-ready targets. Additionally, being able to demonstrate that anomalism occurs well beyond Pelops has also significantly de-risked subsequent stages of exploration.
The work has shown that potential exists for niobium and titanium and also that the project area is significantly endowed with magnetic rare earths. The prospect for neodymium and praseodymium - the more highly-valued members of the magnet rare earths series – has also got a few legs twitching.
The final important conclusion prior to launching the program - and any other future exploration - is the central alkaline granite appears to host much of and possibly the majority of rare earth mineralisation.
Alkaline intrusives of a wide range of chemistries appear in various guises across the rare earths-rich spectrum of potential host rocks.
Furthermore, granite contact zones close to north-south trending dykes are likely to be important considerations in fine-tuning the hunt for local rare earths, which potentially narrows the search area and opens up a new range of exploration avenues.
The company is undertaking statistical analyses to home in on litho-structural and geochemical associations.
From this it has become clear that the alkaline granite and the contact between it and north-south dykes will form the basis of priority targets for the near future.
This is supported by complementary geophysical evidence which identifies a correlation between a later granitic melt intruding the granite and the relationship between the two granite styles and pegmatite/ dyke intrusives.
Informed by a successful sampling program, prospective geology and nearology, Reach Resources’ upcoming drill program looks to be one to keep an eye on.
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By Doug Bright
