Ann: Mt Stirling Central HREE Discovery Confirmed, page-59

Heavy rare earth elements, or “HREE” are a group of metals critical for a greener economy. The term “rare earth” is a misnomer as rare earth metals are abundant in the earth’s crust. However, finding economic deposits of them is no small task.

In its quest to uncover gold mineralisation at its Mt Stirling project, Torian completed a total of 151 auger vacuum, or “AV” drill holes designed to examine the regionally significant Arktos Fault and adjacent structures at the Wishbone prospect as part of a search for arsenic and other gold vectoring path finder elements. The company said its focus on the presence of Yttrium in surface soil samples was to guide AV drilling for gold exploration.From the 151 AV drill holes completed, 36 drill holes contained anomalous yttrium values greater than 100 parts per million with a peak grade of 521ppm identified by handheld portable X-ray fluorescence analysis.Follow-up laboratory analysis using the aqua regia leach technique yielded concentrations up to 544ppm yttrium oxide with significant enrichment of other heavy rare earths along with cobalt, scandium, nickel, chrome, platinum and palladium.

Torian says a further 21 samples were submitted to an alternate laboratory to undergo full whole rock analysis with a more appropriate technique with results due in the coming weeks.

Interestingly, Lynas shares surged to a peak of $11.24 earlier this year on the back of rising rare earths prices and increased demand, up nearly 170 per cent from the same time last year.

Market pundits with a keen nose for rare earth elements will no doubt be casting an eye Torian’s way as news flows in over the coming months. Torian’s task now is to scrub up its Ytirra project to the point where it can show similar geology and grades to those at Lynas’ Mt Weld deposit and Arafura’s Nolans deposit.

Source: thewest