Mamba Exploration secures option to acquire The Don REE-gold project

Mamba Exploration (ASX: M24) has entered into an option agreement with substantial shareholder Mining Equities to secure The Don rare earth elements (REE) and gold project in Western Australia.

The option gives the company an exclusive right (but not an obligation) to purchase the project within three months after the granting of two tenement applications covering an area of 113 square kilometres.

In addition to these tenements, Mamba has applied for an exploration licence to the north over approximately 210sq km.

Consideration for the purchase will comprise an option fee of $25,000 and a total of $100,000 in Mamba shares, based upon the five-day volume weighted average price prior to entering into the agreement.

Mamba will also retain a 1% net smelter royalty on any metals extracted from within the boundaries of the two tenements.

Sedimentary rocks

The Don project is covered by sedimentary rocks including the Killi Killi formation, which hosts the mineralisation at PVW Resources’ (ASX: PVW) REE discovery approximately 48km to the south.

Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) has also been successful in the area, with exploration from 2012 to 2014 covering historically-defined gold trends at The Don through Whites Beach and southeast to the Venus prospect.

The work highlighted a number of anomalous trends for gold and arsenic, however no follow-up exploration was carried out and the area was not tested for REE mineralisation.

Limited exploration

The Don tenements have been subject to limited exploration over the last 20 years.

Six prospects have been identified from historical work and the bulk of exploration has targeted unconformity-hosted uranium mineralisation at the Don prospect.

Historical results include highly anomalous yttrium grading up to 1.55% from trenching at the Whites Beach prospect in the 1980s, and up to 16.8 grams per tonne gold from rock chip sampling at The Don prospect.

Numerous gold nuggets have been discovered from the Whites Beach to Venus trend and the source remains untested.

Enhancing value

Mamba managing director Mike Dunbar said The Don was expected to enhance the value of the company’s existing portfolio.

“We are actively exploring in WA’s Kimberley region and this additional package strengthens our land position and provides us with exposure to an extremely underexplored REE and gold project,” he said.

“Given the success that PVW Resources and Northern Minerals have had exploring the same sedimentary formations and aged rocks for REEs and gold, we were surprised that this project had not been secured by the other active explorers in the area.”

He said initial field reconnaissance would be conducted next month in parallel with a geochemical sampling program at the Copper Flats project.