Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) has opened its 40,000-metre aircore drill program at its Joyce Prospect in Aileron with an “outstanding result,” intersecting high-grade niobium oxide mineralisation at the West Arunta dig.
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“The first line of aircore drilling for the 2025 field season has delivered a high-grade niobium intercept, an outstanding result from a step-out around six kilometres east of the Green deposit,” Encounter chairman Will Robinson said.
The discovery came in the miner’s third drill hole (EAL-1013). Encounter followed the hit up with preliminary field analysis across the lower side using handheld pXRF and identified “significantly anomalous niobium.” After testing in Perth, the hit returned nine metres at 2.2% Nb2O5 from 120 metres to end of hole.
“To encounter high-grade mineralisation in reconnaissance drilling illustrates how much more there is still to be found in this new province,” Mr Robinson said.
Since landing the hit, Encounter’s exploration team has been working to convert high-quality targets into discoveries, with Mr Robinson declaring the company has “barely scratched the surface” at the tenure.
Encounter will next deploy a reverse circulation rig to test the depth and width of the Joyce mineralisation. Alongside that staging, the miner will deploy gravity and passive seismic surveys to image zones of deeper weathering.
(The latter will be tested at the Green prospect before being run out at Joyce.)
All in all, a whole lot of excitement for Encounter already in its West Arunta campaign, and not least because it’s such an early success – and there could well be more on the horizon should Mr Robinson’s prediction hold true: “Given the scale and fertility… the most significant discoveries may still be ahead of us.”
ENR last sold at 26.3cps through lunchtime after a +17% pop on Tuesday.
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