Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Desert Metals (DM1) confirms the potential for high-value rare earth elements (REEs) at the Innouendy project in WA
- The company resubmitted 16 samples from a 49-hole aircore drilling program to analyse the full suite of REEs
- 13 of the 16 samples returned total rare earth oxides (TREOs) higher than 1000 ppm and six samples higher than 2000 ppm over a four-kilometre area
- Managing Director Rob Stuart says the possible extent of REE mineralisation makes this an “exciting opportunity to execute a drill program to define the system further”
- DM1 shares are trading 6.67 per cent higher at 32 cents at 12:15 pm AEST.
Desert Metals (DM1) has received results from drill core samples taken from the Innouendy project in Western Australia.
The company completed a 49-hole reconnaissance aircore drilling program which returned out-of-range cerium values of up to 500 parts per million (ppm) from 14 samples across 10 drill holes.
Following this observation, Desert resubmitted 16 samples from the same 10 holes to analyse the full suite of rare earth elements (REEs) and determine the presence of high-value REEs.
Positively, 13 of the 16 samples returned total rare earth oxide (TREO) values greater than 1000 ppm, with six samples higher than 2000 ppm.
Drill hole INAC027 intersected a 16-metre zone of mineralisation which included TREO values of up to 2199 ppm over a four-metre interval and 4376 ppm over four metres.
Other results include four metres at 2786 ppm TREO from 16 metres in INAC025 and four metres at 2,428 ppm TREO from 36 metres in INAC004.
The intersections have been recorded over approximately four kilometres, highlighting the potential extent of the system.
Managing Director Rob Stuart recalled that while Desert Metals knew other companies were exploring for REEs in neighbouring areas, its recent program wasn’t designed or specifically testing for that.
“The company is extremely encouraged by the grades and intercept widths of REEs at Innouendy and by how well these compare with similar announcements made recently by other companies,” Mr Stuart said.
“The possible extent of REE mineralisation makes this an exciting opportunity to execute a drill program to define the system further.”
Desert Metals has submitted 11 of the 16 samples reported today for analysis by weak-acid digest to determine the proportion of easily recoverable REEs associated with ionic adsorption clay mineralisation.
The company has also resubmitted adjacent samples for full-suite REE analysis ahead of a follow-up drilling program to define the full extent of REE mineralisation at the Innouendy project.
DM1 shares were trading 6.67 per cent higher at 32 cents at 12:15 pm AEST.
