Thorium anomalies at Mamba Exploration’s WA project point to rare earths
Drilling is due to restart this week on Mamba’s WA project following drill rig issues and the Christmas break.
Mamba Exploration (ASX: M24) is planning to begin testing recently identified thorium anomalies at its Ashburton/Gascoyne project early next month.
The company announced today that eight discrete anomalies have been identified which it believes warrant follow-up work.
Radioactive materials uranium and thorium are commonly associated with rare earth deposits.
Therefore, thorium anomalies found in a region where there have been two significant rare earth discoveries of late makes that find all the more compelling.
Potential of area for ‘significant’ discoveries
Field work will include the use of Portable XRF (X-ray fluorescence) where the sample rock is illuminated by an X-ray beam.
The underexplored Gascoyne region has been the location of two recent rare earths discoveries by Dreadnought Resources (ASX: DRE) and Kingfisher Mining (ASX: KFM).
In late August, Kingfisher reported rock chip samples in monazite with extraordinary high rare earth values — up to 40% in one instance.
While rock chip samples will always be higher than the eventual resource grade — geologists choose the most promising parts of ground for their sampling — these results have heightened interest for rare earths in the region.
Mamba managing director Mike Dunbar said that, on top of the gold finds at Ashburton/Gascoyne, these thorium anomalies appear to vindicate the company’s belief that its tenements could host significant discoveries.
The thorium anomalies at Ashburton/Gascoyne are described as similar to those found at Dreadnought’s and Kingfisher’s nearby ground.
WA’s ‘forgotten’ mineral province
After recognising the thorium, Mamba reprocessed and rebalanced the regional data, with this process highlighting “at least” eight discrete anomalies within the company’s tenements.
“The Gascoyne has long been the ‘forgotten’ part of the mineral endowment of Western Australia,” Mr Dunbar explained.
“Thanks to the recent discoveries in the region made by Dreadnought and Kingfisher this has finally changed, and we are pleased the potential is starting to be recognised.”
Today rare earth producers need to extract the thorium (and uranium) from the monazite as waste material, but over a century ago monazite was mined primarily for its thorium (for lantern mantles, among other products) and the rare earths left behind.
Project area also producing gold results
Work by Mamba at Ashburton/Gascoyne has also firmed up the gold potential, with drilling returning 4m at 21.5 grams per tonne gold and rock chip and trench sampling producing grades up to 46.5g/t.
Mamba’s 100%-owned projects are located in the Ashburton, Kimberley, Darling Range and Great Southern regions of Western Australia.
Last month the company secured access to its Black Hills project, located about 30km from the high-profile Julimar discovery by Chalice Mining (ASX: CHN) of extensive platinum group elements-nickel-copper-gold.