A Critica drilling campaign has jagged three large-scale satellite discoveries adjacent and to the east of the company’s Jupiter rare earths target in WA’s Mid West region, taking its total new finds to five.
Management says the major breakthrough within its broader Brothers project has been built on the effective use of geophysical targeting and past drilling efforts that uncovered two other hot spots last month. In taking the company’s new discoveries total to five, it believes the regional exploration program underscored the project as a large-scale mineralised system with extensive rich intersections.
One high-grade intercept recorded in the new areas was of 4m at 5331 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) within a wider zone of 23m going 2130ppm. In the same hole, which reached a depth of 67m, significant amounts of the valuable dysprosium and terbium elements were also detected.
The heavy rare earths – which are essential as additives to permanent magnet production for improved thermal stability and energy density in electric vehicles (EVs) and electronics – are almost entirely sourced from China. With only minimal production elsewhere, it places them firmly on the United States’ critical minerals list.
Other high-grade TREO hits included 4m at 3800ppm inside a bigger patch of 21m running 1604ppm and 4m grading 3086ppm within a 23m hit of 1696ppm.
We’ve made multiple discoveries, which together confirm the provincial-scale nature of the Brother’s Rare Earth Project that surrounds Jupiter. It’s exciting to see our technical team applying knowledge learnt from Jupiter, and cost-effectively delivering new, large-scale discoveries.
The new discoveries were made after 35 air-core (AC) holes were drilled to depths of up to 60m, with intercepts hitting widths of as much as 39m across a 7km-to-9km extent of mineralisation. In addition to the strong grades, low levels of hazardous thorium and uranium were encountered, reducing the potential environmental impact of development.
As well as the successful exploration work, the company has also completed infill drilling at Jupiter and the results due shortly will add more detail to the upcoming maiden resource estimate pigeon-holed for release before the end of the quarter.
At the same time, Critica’s metallurgical work is continuing apace and the results will be critical in firming up the process path for the ore and the economic robustness of the project.
Jupiter, spanning 40 square kilometres of ground, was discovered 18 months ago and the company has since completed more than 42,000m of drilling. Management believes some of its major advantages, apart from the low thorium and uranium levels, is its access to critical infrastructure including highways, gas pipelines and proximity to Lynas Rare Earths’ concentrator and Iluka Resources’ planned refinery.
The deposit is characterised by broad, high-grade zones ranging from 20m to 30m wide and more than 2000ppm TREO – often found within 80m stretches grading above 1000 ppm. Importantly, magnet rare earths (MREO) make up about 23 per cent of the high-grade material.
The company’s latest three finds have continued to build on considerable momentum stemming from the two previous discoveries reported last month and appear to be strengthening Critica’s claim that the Brothers project is now a major new rare earths hub.
Investors are therefore likely to be keeping a close watch on the release of the maiden resource and the metallurgical study in the next few months to confirm those bold thoughts.
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