Mamba Exploration extends Hyden rare earth elements option by six months
Venus Metals plans to undertake drilling at its priority REE targets at Marvel Loch East.
Perth junior Mamba Exploration (ASX: M24) has reached an agreement with private vendor Licograph Pty Ltd to extend the rare earth elements (REE) option over the Hyden project in Western Australia for six months ending November 2023.
The agreement follows an extension of the term of the project’s key exploration licence for an additional five years to January 2028.
The original option gave Mamba 45 days after the extension of the key exploration licence term to exercise the option.
The extension gives the company additional time to receive drill results and complete initial metallurgical test work for the regolith-hosted REE mineralisation identified at the project.
Metallurgical work will help determine the preferred processing path for material extracted at Hyden.
The tests can take up to eight weeks and the extended option will allow Mamba to assess the results prior to its expiry.
Gravity anomaly
Mamba recently completed a 58-hole drill program over a gravity anomaly to the east of the clay target zone at Hyden.
Wide and shallow REE mineralisation was identified in 20 of a total 22 initial holes completed.
Best results were 54 metres at 758 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO) from surface to end of hole; 43m at 877ppm TREO from 8m; 30m at 938ppm TREO from 8m; and 50m at 664ppm TREO from 4m.
Final assays are expected to be received this month.
Calyerup Creek
Mamba recently discovered “significant” gold mineralisation extending over an 850-meter strike length at its Calyerup Creek project.
The final results from 25 holes drilled late last year revealed highlights of 17 meters at 0.80 grams per tonne gold, including 1 meter at 5.8g/t gold and 3 meters at 1.77g/t gold, with mineralisation intercepted 13 meters down hole.
Calyerup Creek, an early-stage exploration project in the Albany Frazer tectonic zone, shares a high-grade Metamorphic Craton Margin setting similar to AngloGold Ashanti’s (ASX: AGG) Tropicana mine and Gascoyne Resources’ (ASX: GCY) advanced Glenburgh project.