DevEx Resources Limited has issued an update on its drilling activities at the Kennedy Rare Earth Project, saying it intersected extensive zones of shallow rare earth element (REE) mineralisation.
According to the company, wide-spaced shallow reconnaissance drilling has defined several Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) intercepts in clays from the surface at the Project.
DevEx recorded 11 broad-spaced reconnaissance rotary air blast holes and tested the northern portion of the prospective tertiary clays, with nine of the holes encountering significant clay-hosted TREO in the top two metres of each hole.
The shallow TREO assay results include important rare earth elements, including praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, that are essential in the manufacturing of permanent rare earth magnets used in electric vehicles and other renewable energy applications.
It added that drilling has encountered the REE-bearing clays from the surface on very broad drill-hole spacings, but noted that further in-fill and step-out drilling will be needed to test the full potential of the Kennedy Rare Earth Project.
DevEx is also working with rare earth processing experts from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation to carry out further metallurgical test work.
The company is also moving forward to gain additional land access over the broader tenement area.
Preliminary metallurgical test work on two drill-hole samples by the Hydrometallurgy Centre of Excellence Division of ALS Metallurgy showed good recoveries by desorption of REE over 24 hours when using ammonium sulphate solution in weakly acidic conditions.
DevEx said the preliminary metallurgical results support the likelihood that a considerate portion of the target REEs are absorbed into clays that have the potential to be recovered using weak acids to liberate the REE.
It noted that the recovery of cerium is very low, which can be seen as a positive outcome as its exclusion in the recovery process has the potential to create a higher-value mixed rare earth product.
