Vital Metals Ltd (ASX:VML) has received “outstanding” results for in-fill resource definition drilling at Tardiff Zone 1 within the Upper Zone of its 100%-owned Nechalacho Rare Earth Project, Northwest Territories, Canada from 37 holes drilled totaling 2,771 m.
The Nechalacho rare earth project consists of two distinct deposits which will be developed over two stages.
The North T deposit hosts a high grade resource of 101,000 tonnes at 9.01% LREO 1 in the measured and indicated JORC 2012 categories, making it one of the highest grade rare earth deposits in the world. Development of this deposit in currently underway under Stage 1. The second deposit, the Upper Zone, boasts an impressive light rare earth oxides (LREO) resource of 94.7 million tonnes at 1.46% TREO 2 in the measured, indicated and inferred JORC 2012 categories and will be the focus expanded operations.
The Tardiff Zone 1, with a resource area of 4.0mt @ 1.95 TREO% or 79,000kt contained TREO, is a higher-grade bastnasite rich area within this resource targeted by the 2021 and 2022 drilling programmes to upgrade the resource so that mining and processing studies can be carried out for a starter open pit in the Upper Zone.
Vital Metal’s 2022 drilling programme was developed to extend the close spaced drilling (25m by 25m) at the Tardiff Zone 1 area to up-grade resources from inferred to measured and indicated so mining studies can be carried out. The close spaced drilling at Tardiff Zone 1 has defined a strong zone of higher grade REO mineralisation with wide intersections greater than 1.5% TREO. The higher-grade mineralisation in Tardiff Zone 1 has been drilled on a 25m grid over a distance of 250m x 250m with material above 1.5% TREO open in most directions.
Metallurgical testwork completed on mineralisation from Tardiff Zone 1 returned grades of up to 39.9% TREO after three beneficiation stages with a low mass pull to the final concentrate of 3.3% and from an original feed grade of 2.4% TREO.3 The testwork demonstrated the ability to produce a high-grade concentrate from Tardiff material which is critical for cost effective rare earth production.
Ongoing Programmes
The 2022 drilling program has given Vital enough close spaced drilling data to create a resource model for the Tardiff Zone 1 to allow follow up mining and metallurgical studies to assess the viability to mining and processing the Tardiff Zone 1 area.
It is expected further drilling will be carried out in the Tardiff Zone 1 area to expand the measured and indicated resources.
For further information please visit: https://vitalmetals.com.au/
