DRE (ASX) Ann: Thick Mineralisation Continues at C3, 2022 Drilling Complete

Originally posted by salpetie: ↑

Some 29Kms of drilling completed in a busy six months since June. A lot to digest on so many fronts.

Given the excellent dissemination of drill data it has been possible to build up a fairly accurate picture of what they have been intersecting in the holes. Multiple back of the envelope estimates have been made for the 3 Kilometers of strike drilled at Yin. There seems to be a general consensus in the 10-20 Mt range at somewhere north of 1% TREO with good NdPr ratios.
More drilling is needed at C3 and elsewhere but for C3 there is a volume of material that is shaping up as being a coherent package.

Grade, as many have said, will be extremely important.

Pretty much stating what is obvious to many so a query is - Is the majority of this news about MRE and carbonatite potential already factored into the SP?
Market reaction today suggests this may, in part, be the case.

Doesn't help that overall market sentiment and liquidity to move SP on fundamentals is probably lacking. Did WA1's discovery drain market enthusiasm. Better topics for @Zior and others. Back to Geology and a report card on sentinel interp.

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Sections.
The DRE one suggests there is a variably mineralised zone of ferrocarbonatite bounded by syenites. The eastern part of this ferroC is mineralised to the contact with the NE syenite and could be open to depth. However, in the west and NW (see plan interp below) mineralisation tails off.

Interesting distribution of Pxrf > material in the weathering profile. Magnetic clay (??) shown as being at least anomalous. Subtle magnetism as not a distinct aeromagnetic anomaly?? Perhaps using a magnetic susceptibility meter combined with a pencil magnet?
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80m to SE section

Syenite contacts projected from Fence 1 and DRE's provided section. Magnetics suggest there is a boundary between C3 and C4 somewhere in this area so such projections are fraught with possible error. Logging of hole 83 could provide a confirmation on the eastern margin and also could explain the termination of Pxrf data at 139m.

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Final C3 infill section is some 80m SE.

The projected syenite contact in the NE seems to work again. Perhaps a hint the zone is pinching out to the south in terms of width.

Lots of pretty wild assumptions in the above based on extremely limited information. Other possibilities abound.

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Plan view and report card

Site geos are learning how to log what are complex lithologies. The difference between Fence 1 and today's section may be an indication of this. The syenite units on these two sections are probably related hence the projections along strike and onto the sections.

Fence 1 has a zone of graphitic/pyritic carbonatite which has only patchy PXRF highs as distinct to the broad highs 320m to the SE in ferrocarbonatite (biotite rich?).

Of course there will be zonation within these carbonatites which won't be well defined until more detailed drilling is done. Grade dependent whether this extra work gets done. I would like to think that the PXRF values are pointing into the economic range as they did at Yin

Report card on infill? B
I was clutching at straws after the end of November and picked a few extra sites as being drilled which were not. Once again the diamond rig at CD2 was missed which IMO is surprising as the pads are usually very distinctive.

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To finish off today's drilling with a section showing diamond hole CD1 on Fence 2.

In practice CD1 and hole 10 would plot together apart from hole deviation.
The diamond drilling suggests the mineralisation may be more continuous down hole.
Carbonatite variation from the original. Syenite as well?

C4 vs C3 zonation and syenite distribution are distinctly different.

Figure 3 in today's announcement is a subtle hint of what may come from the assays.

Take a guess at the percentage of Monazite in this view.

My estimate is 25-30%. This one selected chip and will not be a representation of the whole.

Still (if it was possible) this chip would probably assay in the percentage TREO range IMO. Based on what was shown for surface samples at Sabre (and from KFM as well).
Almost 40% TREO

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Table 2: Mineralised intervals as confirmed by an infield preliminary pXRF analysis (correlation with laboratory assays currently unknown and should be treated with caution) at least 5m of >0.2% TREO, >0.1% Nb2O5, >4% TiO2, >3% P2O5.

Anything less than 5m won't make it onto the table. For example some minor zones on Fence 2 (above) would not be shown.

I suspect the commas between TREO Nb etc are to be treated as and/or rather than purely as and.

Would be great if the latter is the case at it would mean PXRF results shown ALL HAVE >TREO Nb Ti AND P.above the cutoff reported.

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"Pretty much stating what is obvious to many so a query is - Is the majority of this news about MRE and carbonatite potential already factored into the SP? Market reaction today suggests this may, in part, be the case. Doesn't help that overall market sentiment and liquidity to move SP on fundamentals is probably lacking. Did WA1's discovery drain market enthusiasm."

It's a bit of all of the above:
Some of its' already factored in.
Grades remain unclear.
The psychology of moving from the single digit cents to the double digits cents and there is often some mucking about if it's not a clear escape velocity.
Overall market sentiment / weariness / time of year / state of the world.
Part of the cycle of "flavour of the month / week / day". DRE had a very good go, then it was WA1, then WA1's neighbours had a sniff, then it was someone else whose name I forget, then ARU had a bit of another run, then... then... etc etc. Next week... next month... the week after that... the following day...
The explosion of investment choices of RE now. Clay prospects absolutely everywhere. Sands about to make a push with a couple of listings. Though fewer hard rocks about, some new ones are starting to poke up and there will be more - there are almost certainly other as yet undiscovered carb. bodies out there. Maybe not all Mt Welds, but eh. There's really a case for some consolidation in the RE sector.
RE is a tricky investment. There's no developed clay industry, sands are battling their way through to notice and there's only one RE hard rock project in currently mining in Australia. In terms of RE grades, it's the one currently being mined and then everyone else. Shout out to the second highest grade project.
RE is not lithium (or a bunch of other stuff where actual volume demand varies between significant, staggering and unable to be filled) and I say this as someone who follows RE pretty closely. Lanthanoids are important but in the very grand scheme of all things, it's still a bit niche. We really don't see large players falling over themselves to get in the RE game. It will pick up a bit more in the coming years, but it's still a touch early.