Pensana Rare Earths granted highly prospective licence adjacent to Longonjo Rare Earths Project in Angola

The company’s primary focus is on completing the current program at Longonjo and reporting an upgraded resource estimate for the definite feasibility study.

Last month, Pensana received the Mining Licence for Longonjo

Pensana Rare Earths Plc (ASX:PM8) has been granted a new exploration licence prospective for neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) rare earth mineralisation adjacent to its Longonjo Rare Earths Project in Angola.

The 7,456 square kilometre Coola Project lies 16 kilometres from Longonjo and contains two known carbonatites with reported NdPr rare earth mineralisation.

In addition, the project hosts five additional alkaline intrusive complexes and five strong geophysical anomalies which collectively represent an immediate and wide range of well-defined walk-up exploration targets prospective for NdPr and other rare earths.

Location of new Coola Licence and known mineralised carbonatites and other alkaline complexes prospective for rare earths adjacent to Pensana’s Longonjo Project and established modern infrastructure.

Pensana chief operating officer Dave Hammond said: “Our main focus is on completing the current programme at Longonjo and reporting an upgraded Mineral Resource estimate for the DFS, which is expected to significantly extend the mine life of the project.

“Having received the Mining Licence for Longonjo our plan is to capture and test the high potential brownfield opportunities within trucking distance of the proposed treatment plant which have the potential to increase overall production.

“The Coola and Monte Verde carbonatite complexes are of similar size to Longonjo and have been identified as being rich in NdPr mineralisation.

“We are very much looking forward to getting on the ground with the first round of exploration on these exciting new targets.”

Rare earth mineralised carbonatites

The Coola and Monte Verde carbonatites, like Longonjo, are intrusive or volcanic ring structures containing carbonatite rock and are known to be enriched in elements and minerals associated with rare earth mineralisation such as fluorite, strontium, barite, phosphorous and niobium.

They are also the same Cretaceous age (135 million years) age as Longonjo and part of the same regional geological event.

Previous academic work on the three carbonatites identified rare earth enrichment from limited rock samples with the maximum values of 3.64% rare earth oxides (REO) from Coola and 0.93% REO from Monte Verde, comparing well with the 1.41% REO returned from Longonjo in the same study.

Angled view of the Coola carbonatite intrusive complex looking northeast. Two ring structures and a third area of fenite (alteration associated with carbonatite intrusion) extend over 6 kilometres and are largely soil covered.

The Coola and Monte Verde carbonatites have not been commercially explored and, like Longonjo, much of the area is covered by a veneer of ferruginous soil.

Pensana plans to complete initial soil, rock and geological mapping, which if successful may rapidly define drill targets.