Dreadnought Resources extends rare earth strike at Mangaroon to 43km
Dreadnought Resources has added 13km to its mineralised REE zone, including new ironstone trends Y9 and Y42.
Three days after reporting high-grade rare earth elements (REE) and other critical metals numbers from the C3 area at Mangaroon, Dreadnought Resources (ASX: DRE) has added 13km to its mineralised REE area, making for a total 43km of ironstones.
In addition, this extended strike at the Yin zone includes two new ironstone trends, Y9 and Y42.
The headline news is that Y42 has produced high levels of the critical battery metal elements, neodymium and praseodymium. These comprise up to 48% of the total rare earth oxides (TREO) at Y42.
The project area covers about 5,300 sq km of the Mangaroon zone in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.
The region is host to gold mining centres and the Yangibana rare earths project owned by Hastings Technology Metals (ASX: HAS).
‘Ever-increasing’ scale of critical metals
Significant results from surface sampling at Y42 include 4.68% TREO and 5.65% TREO, with neodymium/praseodymium content being 48% and 45% respectively.
At Y9, TREO assays came back as 4.05% and 3.77%, with neodymium/praseodymium content registering between 29% and 25%.
It is Y9 that has increased the scale of the whole project, lying 12km northwest of Yin.
Sampling at Yin returned hits include 5.12% TREO with content coming in at 44%, while Y8 had one assay at 8% TREO, including 21% neodymium/praseodymium.
Dreadnought managing director Dean Tuck said these results further emphasise the “ever-increasing scale of the critical metals at Mangaroon”.
“With only one surface sampling program we have increased the mineralised ironstones by over 40%.”
On top of that, Yin’s neodymium/praseodymium ratios have increased.
Multi-metal regional source
“With over 43km of mineralised ironstones, a multi-metal regional source at C3 and six more potential source carbonatite, we are extremely excited about what the drill rigs will deliver for us in 2023,” Mr Tuck added.
On Wednesday Dreadnought announced further “outstanding” results from a drilling program at C3.
The explorer began a first pass 82-hole (7,813m) reverse circulation drilling program last September on the C1-C5 carbonatites with no definitive targets.
The aim of the campaign was to identify mineralisation to allow future programs to vector in on a potential source of the regional rare earth ironstones.
Dreadnought two days ago confirmed a 600m by 550m zone of REE-phosphate-niobium-titanium-scandium mineralisation at the C3 carbonatite discovery.