Petratherm (ASX:PTR) observes roughly 30 metre deep saprolite clay zone at Comet

• Petratherm (PTR) completes drilling the first area in its aircore drilling program at its Comet gold project in South Australia
• So far, 110 drill holes have been completed in the central “REE one anomalous area” where previous drilling encountered up to 2819 ppm total rare earth oxide from 15 metres
• Samples have been submitted to the lab and the favourable saprolite clay zone has been observed to start from five to 15 metres deep, extending to around 30 to 35 metres
• The drill rig will now move to REE area two which will expand the initial zone to the southwest and northeast
• Company shares ended trade today down 4.8 per cent at 10 cents

Petratherm (PTR) has completed drilling the first area in its aircore drilling program at its Comet gold project in South Australia.

Shallow cover strata reportedly masks most of the prospective basement rock geochemical response, and as such PTR is completing shallow grid drilling to directly sample the top of the saprolite zone clays.

Saprolite has been described by the company as deeply weathered basement rock which has been chemically decomposed to clay.

So far, Petratherm has completed 110 aircore drill holes across the central “rare earth element (REE) one anomalous area” where previous drilling encountered up to 2819 parts per million total rare earth oxide from 15 metres.

While previous drill holes comprised a single three metre composite sample, PTR said this round of drilling will examine the full clay profile to see if the REE continue at depth or up-dip.

All samples taken so far have been submitted for geochemical analysis, and the company has noted the favourable saprolite clay zone in this area starts from five to 15 metres deep, and extends to around 30 to 35 metres.

Work in this area has taken 10 days to complete and the drill rig will now move to REE area two to complete another 200 metre by 200 metre spaced grid.

The second area extends for three kilometres by 1.5 kilometres and will expand the initial zone to the southwest and northeast.

Company shares ended trade today down 4.8 per cent at 10 cents.