Junior explorer Australian Rare Earths has reported an 84% increase in the resource at its Koppamurra rare earths project in South Australia, with the resource now standing at 186-million tonnes at 712 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREOs), containing up to 132 000 t of TREOs.

“With each drilling campaign we have progressively built our confidence in our ability to demonstrate the establishment of a world-scale ionic clay-hosted rare earths province in the heart of a tier-one location,” said Australian Rare Earths CEO Travis Beinke.

“These outstanding results represent a substantial increase to the resource and confirms- Koppamurra as a new world-scale ionic clay-hosted rare earths province. In addition, significant upside remains with an updated exploration target range of 340-million tonnes to 3.1-billion tonnes and the resource remaining open to the north and south.”

A near 30 000 m drilling programme is set to start in October this year to further expand the mineral resource.

“With our growing understanding of the geology and rare earth mineralisation processes at Koppamurra we remain confident in the consistency of the mineralisation across the project area and are eager to return to drilling next month to drill test areas with no historical drilling,” said Beinke.

“We intend to continue creating value for shareholders by growing and upgrading the inventory while advancing our metallurgical testwork and other development studies in parallel.”

“Koppamurra is located in a tier-one jurisdiction and contains both light and the strategically important heavy rare earths required for high-strength permanent magnets. We have demonstrated that rapid and progressive rehabilitation can be achieved through our trial mining pit. All of these factors distinguish Koppamurra as a unique opportunity to establish a new sustainable source of critical heavy rare earths for a clean energy future.”