White Cliff closes in on rare earths after WA survey

White Cliff Minerals has polished off a high-resolution magnetic and radiometric survey at its Yinnetharra lithium and rare earths project about 100km northeast of Gascoyne Junction in WA.

The operation is within earshot of several high-profile plays including Hastings Technology Metals’ world-class Yangibana rare earths acreage and Arrow Minerals’ emerging Reid Well prospect where rock chip sampling returned grades of up to 3.77 per cent lithium oxide.

White Cliff’s geophysical campaign was aiming at refining and producing a suite of new targets at the site and saw the explorer run its two-pronged survey across the full 574 square kilometre extent of Yinnetharra.

The survey was managed by Southern Geoscience Consultants with expectation that the data collected will be fully processed and interpreted by January.

News of the survey’s conclusion follows an earlier rock chip sampling program at the site that delivered grades of up to 924 parts per million total rare earth oxides, or “TREO”. Other notable results at the project include the procurement of 13 samples going over 780ppm TREO along with several occurrences of anomalous thorium.

Yinnetharra is positioned in a bubbling postcode for rare earths with the asset situated roughly 85km south of the $492 million capped Hastings’ distinguished Yangibana operation. Hastings’ project is at the tip of the spear when it comes to scale and hosts a 21 million tonne JORC-compliant resource grading 1.17 per cent TREO.

According to White Cliff, the lion’s share of Yangibana’s rare earths mineralisation is held within ironstone dykes that are temperately radioactive and magnetically anomalous.

Due to the nature of the site’s mineralisation and the proximity of the operation to Yinnetharra, the explorer opted to complete both magnetic and radiometric survey work to outline fresh targets.

In addition, the company has engaged notable mapping geologist Allan Ronk to evaluate its present GIS mapping dataset and speed the process along. White Cliff says the exercise has led to the identification of several new areas which have yet to be sampled and the company has mobilised a ground crew to Yinnetharra to evaluate Ronk’s preliminary data.

Perth-based White Cliff has been working up lithium and rare earths targets within Yinnetharra since late last year when it picked up the tenure as part of a frenetic land grab.

As part of the score, it also took ownership of a host of WA-based operations including the Hines Hill rare earths project and the Diemals rare earths and base metals operation.

According to White Cliff, it has engaged Southern Geoscience Consultants to process publicly available airborne electromagnetic data acquired at Hines Hill and Diemals. The program is seeking to define areas with potential to host ionic-style rare earths mineralisation by defining clay zones and sulphide conductors. Current expectations are for the program to be wrapped up in two weeks.

At Diemals the company has also completed a 1104-piece geochemical sampling program, mobilising the specimens to an assay laboratory for detailed analysis.

Meanwhile at the recently acquired Lake Tay rare earths project about 120km south-west of Norseman in Western Australia, White Cliff is looking to launch its maiden field program to follow up on some historical results.

A 2008 air-core drilling program by Magnetic Resources returned highly anomalous rare earth results including 4m at 1012ppm TREO at the site.

White Cliff says the Lake Tay project area is prospective for ionic clay-hosted rare earth mineralisation however it remains relatively under-explored.

Clay-hosted rare earths deposits generally permit cheaper extraction and processing costs and despite being readily worked in China are comparatively scarce in Australia.

Rare earths are fast becoming one of the globe’s most talked about commodities and are predominantly used to create permanent magnets for electric vehicle motors.

Recent projections indicate the transition from carbon to renewable energy could push the demand for magnet rare earths to 250,000 tonnes by 2035 – roughly triple that of today’s requirements.

The outlook has led a host of players to wade into the potentially lucrative industry, a notion highlighted yesterday when mining magnate and Australia’s richest person, Gina Rineheart tipped $60 million into a $121m capital raise from ASX-listed Arafura Rare Earths.

Rineheart’s investment through Hancock Prospecting will be used to fund the development of Arafura’s Nolans rare earths project in the Northern Territory.

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