Dreadnought Resources has begun the much-anticipated 2023 drilling program at its Mangaroon rare earth element (REE) project in Western Australia, with the aim of building resources and making further discoveries.
A reverse circulation rig is currently operating at the Yin Ironstone Complex within the project, which hosts 43km of REE mineralised ironstones.
Initial drilling aims to grow the existing resource which stands at 14.36 million tonnes grading 1.13% total rare earth oxides.
The resource is based on 3km of strike calculated on an intensity of 4.8Mt per kilometre.
Dreadnought managing director Dean Tuck said the company was “excited” to be back on site for a busy season at Mangaroon after an “extremely successful” exploration program last year.
Additional discoveries
Mr Tuck said the company was “ready to deliver” exploration success from drilling both the carbonatites and the ironstones at Mangaroon, which are prospective for REE.
In addition the resource, last week, Dreadnought revealed an exploration target for the Yin Ironstone Complex’s remaining 40km of strike.
The exploration target ranges from 50Mt to 100Mt with grades between 0.9-1.3% TREO.
As part of the current program, drilling will test the exploration target along strike.
A second RC drill and a diamond rig will also begin operating on site next month.
In addition to testing the Yin complex, the extra RC rig will drill the C1-C7 carbonatites. Drilling the carbonatites will be a first-pass, wide-spaced program.
Assays are expected to be announced in the current quarter from the remaining 66 holes completed across the C1-C5 carbonatites lates last year.
Meanwhile, the diamond drill will assist with resource upgrades and gathering samples for metallurgical test work and geotechnical studies.
Analogous to Yangibana
Dreadnought says the Yin complex is analogous to Hastings Technology Metals’Yangibana project about 25km away and scheduled to come online next year.
Yangibana has a resource of 29.93Mt at 0.93% TREO with 32% neodymium+praseodymium (34% NdPr:TREO).
The high proportion of neodymium and praseodymium found at both Yangibana and Mangaroon is considered globally unique.
Neodymium and praseodymium are considered critical, and the principal metals needed in permanent magnets for a variety of technologies.
