Gold Mountain’s Irajuba tenements yield promising rare earth results in Brazil

A series of very high-grade results from channel sampling at Gold Mountain’s (ASX: GMN) Irajuba tenements within the Down Under rare earths project in Brazil have compared favourably with geochemical samples taken from known mineralised channels in the region.

Ten assays received from road cuts showed peak values of 1,045 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) in a strongly weathered profile, with magnetic rare earth oxides (MREO) comprising up to 33.6% of TREO and heavy rare earth oxides (HREO) making up to 19.1% of TREO.

The results compare favourably to MREO and HREO percentages recorded by Brazilian Rare Earths (ASX: BRE) at a 510-million-tonne inferred mineral resource along strike from Down Under.

Auger drilling

A program of auger drilling has been planned in the vicinity of the channel sampling results to explore beneath the strongly-leached surface zone into saprolite.

The leaching is believed to be due to vegetation forming organic acids, which dissolve rare earths and produce strongly encouraging results, with profile grades expected to be found from tapping into the immediate surface layers.

Drilling has been designed to maximise geological information and all significant intersections will be reanalysed for desorbable rare earths.

Extensive radiometric surveying will also be conducted along all drill hole traverses.

New discoveries

Gold Mountain said there was “outstanding potential” for new high-grade rare earth discoveries in the laterite profiles present in the vicinity of the positive channel sample results.

“The success of this ongoing first phase of greenfield exploration is very encouraging, and our exploration is now focused on defining resource areas with auger drilling,” the company said.

“We believe these outstanding results and the previous stream sediment rare earths results mark a step change in progress towards defining resources of ultra-high-grade monazite and ionic clay-hosted mineralisation at our projects.”

Gold Mountain’s initial exploration work at Down Under identified the potential for ultra-high-grade hard rock monazite-hosted rare earth-niobium-uranium-scandium mineralisation.

This was further consolidated by new stream sediment sample results believed to be coincident with higher-value TREO anomalies.