Mamba Exploration secures option to acquire high-grade Hyden rare earths project
As Lithium Australia advances its battery recycling technologies, the company continues progressing its exploration projects.
Mamba Exploration (ASX: M24) has entered into an option agreement to purchase 100% of the rare earth element (REE) rights across four exploration licences near the town of Hyden in Western Australia.
The “exceptionally high-grade” licences are being acquired from private vendor Licograph Pty Ltd and cover an area of 561 square kilometres of predominantly broad acreage grain farms in the wheatbelt region.
Licograph has conducted limited exploration in the area for graphite over the last three years, including the drilling of 28 aircore holes for a total 1,032 metres.
Mamba has also applied for an additional five licences over 755sq km, bringing the total area covered by the Hyden project to over 1,300sq km.
Terms of the agreement
Under the terms of the option agreement, Mamba has committed to drilling at least 10 holes on one of the licence areas with at least $25,000 in exploration expenditure before the start of the new year.
The option extends for 45 days after the grant of an extension for the licence, which is expected to be after March 2023.
Industry standard conditions and warranties for the agreement including a pre-emptive right over other commodities including lithium but excluding nickel and PGE (platinum group elements).
High-grade zone
Mamba managing director Mike Dunbar confirmed the company had already identified a high-grade zone of 46,700 parts per million (or 4.67% total rare earth oxides in clays) from Licograph’s limited sampling program.
“Given that most clay-hosted rare earth oxide mineralisation tends to grade between 800ppm and 2,000ppm, this zone represents a very compelling target,” he said.
“Our preliminary technical due diligence has also identified a significant gravity anomaly to the east of the area of limited REE sampling, which suggests the area holds potential for clay-hosted deposits as well as hard rock REEs.”
Re-drilling of project area
Mr Dunbar said the significance of the gravity anomaly and high-grade clay rare earth oxides is currently unknown and understanding the relationship between the two will be a key aspect of the company’s exploration strategy going forward.
Re-drilling of the project area will be needed to fully understand the extent of the high-grade mineralisation and is one of the option agreement.
Mamba will also undertake detailed magnetic and gravity surveys over the area to better define the geophysical anomalies prior to drilling.