ACDC Metals hitting the right notes with successful completion of Victorian rare earths drilling

Victorian focussed rare earths element (REE) and heavy minerals sands (HMS) explorer ACDC Metals (ASX: ADC) has successfully wrapped up an aircore drilling program in western Victoria.

The program consisting of both exploration and in-fill drilling was completed over 12,500 metres across the Goschen Central, Watchem and Douglas projects.

Along with successfully and safely undertaking the drilling campaign, the program validated, infilled and extended historical drilling on a number of critical targets.

Sampling success

The company was also successful in collecting a number of metallurgical samples, which have subsequently been transported to an assay laboratory in Perth.

ACDC Metals chief executive officer, Tom Davidson, said the results from the assays will be utilised in engineering development and resource estimation studies.

He said the recently completed drilling program has importantly enabled the company to validate the extensive historical data associated with its Victorian portfolio.

The company was able to use those results to carry out targeted drilling based on field observations of the drilling samples.

“With all of our heavy mineral sand now at the laboratory, we will be reporting a steady stream of results to shareholders and look forward to our first Goschen Central data release due imminently,” he added.

ACDC highlighted the exploration of the Victorian rare earth element and heavy mineral sands assets in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the lead up to its listing on the ASX earlier this year.

Since listing in late January, the company has completed more than 10,000m of drilling across all projects and is now well advanced on exploration programs outlined in the prospectus, in preparation for the release of the company’s maiden resource.

Drilling plans

ACDC’s initial drilling focus at Goschen Central targeted historical drilling, with follow-up infill drilling to be utilised in the compilation of a maiden resource for the project which is scheduled for release in the third quarter.

Drilling at Watchem was successful in confirming historical strandline style HMS mineralisation identified by past drilling.

Douglas drilling and targeted historical results that also suggested the presence of a heavy mineral strandline.

HMS and REE highlighted in Victorian Budget submission

ACDC’s strategy has an ultimate goal of producing heavy mineral sands products and rare earth elements.

Both those minerals were recently highlighted as being critical to Victoria’s economic future in the Minerals Council of Australia’s 2023 Victorian budget submission.

The MCA called on the government to establish a taskforce to investigate impediments and infrastructure needs for mineral sands/rare earths separation and processing.

It also suggested that the Victorian government needed to target the establishment pf multiple new gold, mineral sands/rare earths and base metal mines by 2030, which would lead to the creation of thousands of jobs and establish supply chain opportunities for small businesses across regional Victoria.

Notably, the company has added to its development opportunities by entering into a licensing agreement with Canadian public company Medallion Resources Ltd (TSXV: MDL) to utilise its proprietary monazite processing technology, the Medallion Monazite Process (MMP Technology) to extract REE from monazite.

Mineral Sands critical in many areas

Victoria’s Earth Resources department says that mineral sands are critical components in some of the most frequently used household products such as sunscreen, inks and paints and tiles, as well as medical devices, welding materials and purification systems.

Mineral sands are also increasingly used in energy transition infrastructure, providing a key driver for increasing interest in the exploration and development of mineral sands in Victoria.

Mineral sand deposits contain a concentrated amount of economically important minerals known as ‘heavy minerals’, which are much heavier than common sand minerals such as quartz.

Mineral sands deposits typically comprise the following minerals of economic interest: zircon, rutile, leucoxene, ilmenite, monazite and xenotime.

Zircon is rich in the element zirconium. Rutile, leucoxene and ilmenite contain titanium.

Monazite and xenotime contain rare earth elements.

Other minerals such as magnetite and garnet may also be present including praseodymium and neodymium used in permanent batteries.