Eclipse Metals Confirms Strategic Critical Minerals At Ivigtût Ahead of Grønnedal Drilling

Eclipse Metals (ASX: EPM) is moving toward a resource expansion program at the Grønnedal deposit within its Ivigtût rare earth project in southwest Greenland, with the company’s drilling contractor confirming its rig would be available this month and inter-governmental approvals progressing.

The campaign will aim to build on the deposit’s existing inferred resource by testing deeper zones of the carbonatite complex as well as high-priority anomalies identified in previous geophysical and mineralogical work.

Grønnedal’s resource currently sits at 89 million tonnes grading 6,363 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) for 567,600t TREO, establishing it as one of the largest rare earth discoveries in the North Atlantic region.

Ivigtût Waste Assays

Assays from stockpiles of mineralised waste from the Ivigtût open pit have confirmed consistent enrichment in rubidium and gallium, identifying a rubidium grade of 1,335ppm in earlier drill core sample.

Eclipse collected 5t of representative bulk sample from Ivigtût waste material in 2022, which it then shipped to ALS Laboratories in Perth for analysis.

Assays averaged 421ppm rubidium, indicating a consistently-enriched pit environment which is supportive of Ivigtût’s potential as a multi-critical mineral project together with high-purity quartz and zinc.

Critical Minerals Supply

Rubidium and gallium are on the US critical minerals list, and Eclipse sees Ivigtût complementing Grønnedal’s rare earths via strategic by-product opportunities aligned with accelerating global demand.

“As supply chains continue to pivot away from reliance on China, Eclipse stands out as a logical fit for downstream players seeking reliable, large-scale, and geopolitically secure supply of rare earths and critical by-products,” the company said.

“We believe the combination of a large-scale rare earth resource at Grønnedal with critical co-elements at Ivigtût underscores our strategic positioning within the North Atlantic supply chain.”

Eclipse said port access at Ivigtût, proximity to European markets, and alignment with EU and US critical minerals initiatives, all place it in a unique position to attract global partnerships.