Axel REE has identified significant gallium mineralisation following a review of auger and diamond drill samples collected from the ongoing Phase One campaign at its flagship Caladão rare earths project in Brazil.
The company has so far completed a total of 217 drill holes for 3,606 metres across key targets at Area A.
The zone is reportedly shaping the potential for Caladão to become an emerging world-class rare earths deposit.
Gallium occurrence
The sample review suggested that gallium at Caladão tends to preferentially occur in the near-surface zone of the weathering profile and appears to be associated with aluminium-rich portions of the regolith.
Despite this tendency, results show that high-grade mineralisation can be thick and occur throughout the entire structure.
Best results were 6m at 71 grams per tonne gallium oxide from 4m including 1m at 124g/t from 4m, 14m at 77g/t gallium oxide from surface including 7m at 83g/t from 4m and 6m at 71g/t gallium oxide from surface.
Rare earth mineralisation
Axel managing director Dr Fernando Tallarico said the thick and high-grade gallium intercepts would complement the clay-hosted rare earth mineralisation at Caladão.
“The rare earths have trended from near-surface to the deepest parts of the clay-rich regolith, whereas the gallium is concentrated in the upper and shallowest portions of this same regolith,” he said.
“What was initially considered overburden of the rare earth mineralisation is now seen as a potentially valuable gallium by-product [and] this could potentially have significant economic benefits as we shape our deposit.”
Previous assays
Assays had previously returned consistently high-grade total rare earth oxide (TREO) and magnet rare earth oxide (MREO) results from a 30 square kilometre zone at Area A, representing 10% of the total Caladão acreage.
These included a record high 28,321 parts per million TREO and up to 7,606ppm MREO.
The company intends to conduct further sample reviews as more assays from Phase One drilling are returned.
