Encounter Resources expands Aileron niobium discovery with promising drilling results
Encounter Resources (ASX: ENR) continues to grow its high-grade niobium discovery at the Aileron project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region.
The current drilling program has identified more than 800 metres of shallow mineralised trend at the Crean niobium discovery at Aileron.
The company has intersected continuous near-surface carbonatite across four initial aircore drill lines at Crean, with the first assays received returning shallow, high-grade niobium-rare earth element (REE) mineralisation in three adjacent drill holes.
Drilling success
Drilling to date indicates mineralisation at Crean is strengthening to the west and remains open, with Encounter of the belief that the carbonatite strikes east to west and steeply dips to the north.
“Aircore drilling is opening up new fronts of shallow niobium-REE carbonatite hosted mineralisation at Aileron,” managing director Will Robinson said.
“The aircore rig completed over 10,000m of drilling in its first month on site [and] expanded the near-surface footprint of the Crean, Hurley and Emily carbonatites.”
“Aircore drilling is proving to be a fast, low-impact and cost-effective method to discover near-surface niobium-REE mineralisation in this part of the West Arunta.”
Depth continuity
A priority of the 2024 program was to assess the extent of shallow mineralisation at Crean.
To date, continuous near-surface carbonatite has been intersected across the four aircore drill lines completed to the west of previous drilling.
Encounter is now going deeper to test the upside of the Crean target, after numerous aircore holes finished in mineralisation at the depth capacity of the rig.
The company will look to establish depth continuity and further aircore drilling along strike will follow the high-grade, near-surface mineralisation towards its Hoschke prospect.
Assay results expected
Encounter has dispatched a second batch of aircore samples to the lab, with assay results expected in July.
This batch includes further samples from Crean and priority samples from aircore drilling completed at Emily and Hurley.
The aircore rig has now moved to the large-scale, untested Green and Joyce targets located east of WA1 Resources’ (ASX: WA1) Luni carbonatite discovery.
Niobium a critical metal
Niobium is becoming an increasingly targeted element due to its growing use in batteries and steelmaking.
Volkswagen and Brazilian mining company CBMM are reportedly testing a new battery technology featuring niobium that they believe may transform the electric vehicle industry due to its potential for faster charging and a longer lifespan than conventional batteries.
Niobium has been listed as a critical metal in many jurisdictions due to it being an essential component in many high-strength corrosion-resistant low-alloy steels and superalloys and because of its high supply risk.
A single country, Brazil, is responsible for over 90% of global niobium production.
Mordor Intelligence has estimated the niobium market size at 106.85 kilotons in 2024 and expects it to reach 171.49kt by 2029.