Previously gold and copper focused Codrus Minerals looks to have made the right decision to diversify into critical minerals with its first hole at the Karloning project intercepting high-grade rare earths elements (REE).
The Karloning rare earths-niobium project is located in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt, and 30km from the town of Mukinbudin, is served by a sealed road.
The company says initial assays from the top 40m at the first hole — with mineralisation intercepted 8m down hole — returned 12m at 2,680 parts per million TREYO (total rare earths plus yttrium), and including 4m at 4,764ppm TREYO.
While the core contained high values of lanthanum and cerium, the 12m intercept included 123ppm praseodymium and 356ppm neodymium.
Two styles of REE mineralisation
The maiden reverse circulation program of 31 hole for 1,906m has now been completed and all samples have been submitted to a laboratory for analysis.
Codrus says the result from the first hole drilled “significantly” upgrades the Karloning project’s REE potential, with two styles of REE mineralisation now confirmed — hard rock pegmatite and clay-hosted REE.
Previous work confirmed that the pegmatite system also contains niobium.
“The Karloning project represents an excellent opportunity for Codrus to diversify into the critical metals’ space and build on its current gold and copper assets, providing exposure to a commodity sector with outstanding fundamentals and a strong growth outlook,” the company states.
Big supply crunch looms for REE magnet metals
The announcement coincides with a new report from Toronto-based commodity analysts Adamas Intelligence which shows that, by 2040, the demand for magnet rare earths oxides (and that includes neodymium and praseodymium, or NdPr) will be five times the size of present demand.
In addition, the annual under-supply in 2040for NdPr is forecast to be 90,000 per annum — an amount roughly equivalent to 2022’s total global output.
Codrus acquired the project last November in a deal with unlisted Talgomine Minerals by which it can earn a 90% stake.
The company has also pegged an adjacent tenement in its own right.
Apart from NdPr, Karloning has exploration potential for other battery elements dysprosium and terbium.
