From - raremetalblog.com 30 March 2011Australia?s emerging REE...

From - raremetalblog.com
30 March 2011

Australia?s emerging REE player Hastings Rare Metals (ASX:HAS) will start drilling in late April to both enlarge its resource and also to expand the project from its present rare metal profile to one that includes its substantial HREE potential. Executive director Mathew Walker says he wants the company to advance within the next 18 months and start catching up with Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK) which has a similar project across the other side of Australia.

The company recently dropped the old name of Augustus Minerals and adopted the title of its project located near Halls Creek in the remote East Kimberley region of Western Australia. The deposit so far contains a resource of 22 million tonnes according to Australia?s JORC reporting code, and is dominated by niobium, tantalum, zirconium and yttrium. But that resource is based on a previous program of 40 drill holes, only two of which were assayed for REE.

The Hastings project has been through several hands over the years. Niobium was detected in 1973 and then Mobil Oil flew aerial magnetics looking for uranium. A subsidiary of Unocal, and which today is Molycorp, drilled holes there in the 1980s. Then the ground belonged to an Australian iron ore company for a while before passing into private hands, and then to Hastings Rare Metals.

Apart from the drilling campaign, the company is about to announce the appointment of an advisory board made up of people with REE experience. By later this year, there?ll be a scoping study under way.

?The focus is getting to market in the shortest possible period of time,? said Walker. Part of that will be to get the company?s value recognised by investors, with Hastings Rare Metals now capitalised at just $A23 million. In fact, he would like to be in 18 months? time where Alkane is today - which is quite a telescoping of a process that has taken the latter a considerable number of years.

Walker is, as he puts it, ?hopeful and confident? that the drilling will confirm high grades of dysprosium. Even considering the existing drill data, there remains considerable exploration potential at the project. By the third quarter of this year, he says, the company will know a great deal more about the REE potential. The next three months will see not just exploration but metallurgical studies and bulk sampling.

For non-Australian readers, it might be worth explaining that the Kimberley region is one of the lesser explored mineral provinces of Australia, not least due its remoteness and challenging climate. Exploration, however, is picking up fast and more and more projects are underway for a wide range of minerals partly guided by the belief that - due to it not being as well explored as other parts of Australia - that big discoveries may still be waiting there. The Cummins Range REE project, now being readied for an initial public offering as Kimberley Rare Earths, is located in the region.

Two other companies to note.

Epic Resources (ASX:EPC) listed on the Australian Securities Exchange last month. It has the Quartz Hill project in the Harts Ranges of the Northern Territory which it describes as containing uranium and REE-rich pegmatites. Exploration is due to begin next month.
Meanwhile, Outback Metals (ASX:OUM) is also gearing up to drill its Wingate gold-copper-REE-silver project in the Northern Territory.?
Posted by Robin Bromby at 12:08:50 AM in Blog, Editor, Robin Bromby