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ARK MINES (ASX:AHK)

This battler emerged from voluntary administration December 2021 with two priority projects in Queensland – ‘Mount Jess’ (copper and iron ore) and ‘Gunnawarra’ (nickel and cobalt).

It is now dipping its toe into rare earths, acquiring the fairly advanced ‘Sandy Mitchell’ project in North Queensland for just $200,000 cash.

A bunch of exploration work has already been done on the project by previous owners, which included state-owned Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC).

This exploration returned very high grades up to 18.4% TREO hosted in sands, which could be panned into a concentrate allowing “low-cost, fast start up, straightforward beneficiation by gravity processing”, AHK says.

The company, which sees opportunity for a quick, low capex development, is already applying for a mining licence.

It is also reviewing old drilling data to define a resource.

“We are well-advanced in the review of the historical data and follow up exploration is likely to focus on defining more pan concentrates across multiple areas of the tenement area, metallurgy and engineering test work to define a mining operation,” exec chair Roger Jackson says.

“As a further reflection of our confidence in the project, we have held preliminary discussions with potential customers that are establishing processing operations in Australia.

“In terms of the make-up of the Rare Earths elements at Sandy Mitchell, Ark will focus more on extracting higher-priced Heavy Rare Earths Elements, as highlighted, as these are well represented in historical reports assessed to date.

“This is one characteristic that makes Sandy Mitchell unique and commercially appealing.”

The $8m capped minnow is flat year-to-date. It had $2.4m in the bank at the end of December.