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- Rare earth minerals explorer RareX (REE) has found significant niobium mineralisation at its Cummins Range project in WA’s Kimberley region
- Niobium is one of 35 elements defined as critical minerals by both the U.S. and Australian governments due to their strategic importance
- The existence of niobium provides considerable upside given the mineral has traded at more than double the price of rare earth oxides over the past decade
- The recent reverse circulation drilling program was aimed at upgrading the confidence in the resource estimate from inferred to indicated resources
- More assays will be returned next week
- RareX is trading 6.06 per cent higher at 17.5 cents
Rare earth minerals explorer RareX (REE) has found significant niobium mineralisation at its Cummins Range project in WA’s Kimberley region.
Critical minerals
Niobium is one of 35 elements defined as critical minerals by both the U.S. and Australian governments due to their strategic importance and limited availability.
Recent extensional and infill drilling has revealed thick, high-grade results for rare earth elements.
Assays have now been returned for a full suite of elements, and have shown significant niobium, scandium and phosphate mineralisation.
Three reverse circulation (RC) holes were drilled and yielded best intercepts of 41 metres at four per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) and 0.21 per cent niobium oxide (Nb2O5) from 29 metres, and 36 metres at 4.6 per cent TREO and 0.32 per cent Nb2O5 from surface, including an ultra high-grade zone of three metres at 25.1 per cent TREO with more than 0.45 per cent Nb2O5.
Based on the positive results, the company will investigate niobium as a possible by-product from any future operations. Phosphate and scandium will also be closely assessed going forward.
RareX Managing Director Jeremy Robinson says the discovery of niobium adds considerable upside to the project’s viability.
“With niobium trading fairly consistently at about US$40 per kilogram (around A$55.72/kg) for much of the last decade, compared to an expected rare earth oxide price of US$15/kg (roughly A$20.89/kg), this could represent a significant by-product for the project,” Jeremy said.
Next steps
The recent RC drilling was aimed at upgrading the confidence in the resource estimate from inferred to indicated resources.
Further assays from the 6143-metre RC program are expected next week.
Given the first batch returned results significantly above the known resource grade, RareX is confident the existing inferred resource of 13 million tonnes at 1.13 per cent TREO will get a upgrade.
With the niobium discovery providing further upside for the project, RareX believes there could be considerable potential at Cummins Range.
RareX is trading 6.06 per cent higher at 17.5 cents at 12:37 pm AEST.
