Venus joins Gascoyne rare earths race after data review

Venus Metals Corporation has lit up multiple priority targets using remote sensed data at the company’s Mangaroon rare earths project in one of the country’s fastest emerging rare earths districts. The company’s four tenement package on the edge of WA’s Gascoyne region borders significant rare earth ventures held by ASX-listed Hastings Technology Metals, Dreadnought Resources and Lanthanein Resources.

The high-priority targets were marked with multiple anomalies using a range of techniques and datasets including processed satellite imagery, geophysical data and geological maps.

Venus believes its ground features the same hosting lithologies found within Dreadnought and Hastings ground.

The company also says the broader ground’s ironstones are proven to host rare earths and have their own distinct signatures in the satellite data. From its data analysis Venus interprets all its tenements to contain the same ironstones in addition to radiometric anomalies.

Linear and circular structures intersecting the tenements have also been interpreted to have acted as pathways for the highly demanded mineralisation.

A field program of mapping and sampling is scheduled to commence in the second week of September to evaluate the fresh targets.

Venus Metals Corporation Managing Director, Matthew Hogan said:“We’re extremely encouraged by the recent rare earth element exploration success in the region by Dreadnought Resources Ltd and look forward to updating the market in due course regarding the multiple targets that have been identified through advanced remote-sensed data processing methods.”

Rare earths have been causing quite a buzz in the markets of late owing to their role in the emerging green revolution.

The rare earths-based neodymium-praseodymium oxide is a key component in neodymium magnets, also known as “NdFeB”, “NIB” or “Neo” magnets. The high-tech magnets are commonly used in smartphones, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

According to business intelligence company CRU International, the demand for NdFeB magnets is expected to increase nearly four-fold over the period of 2021 to 2038 with a compound annual growth rate of 8.3 per cent.

Sitting at $0.051 on Friday 22 July, the market caught wind of Dreadnought’s rare earths discovery within the ironstones at its Yin prospect on Monday 25 July and since then Dreadnought’s share price has been on a fierce climb upwards.

Today, Dreadnaught set its 52-week high water mark during intra-day trading of $0.155 on the back of the discovery of thick ironstones at another of the company’s prospects in addition to further significant rare earth assays from Yin.

Notably, both the share prices of Dreadnought and Lanthanein have appreciated as much as 216 and 300 per cent since July 4, respectively.

Hastings has seen a seemingly more modest rise of 36 per cent over the same period, however for a company with a market cap of over half a billion dollars the increase is quite significant.

After the surge, Lanthanein and Dreadnought now boast market caps of $59 million and $411 million, respectively — and in between them and Hastings, lies the $28-million-capped Venus.

Venus Metals Corporation holds eight other projects in its portfolio in addition to its Mangaroon rare earths project, however with the rare earths race heating up, the Gascoyne-based project could quickly become the jewel in its crown.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au