Very significant discovery announcement today that has completely caught the market sleeping in my opinion. ABX is coming to an inflection point for it's two non-exploration projects with today's high grade clay hosted ionic absorption rare earth's discovery 56km from its Deep Leads resource.
The significance of today's announcement is they have discovered high grade rare earths from surface within virgin exploration ground. Check out the scale on the map below - that's a solid few KM's between the exceptional hits.
The hits boast some of the highest dy+tb grades vs global peers, whilst being the highest in Aus. They only completed a tiny 8 hole program scattered across the tenement with a follow up program being finalised. The hits also provide proof of concept for their bespoke exploration drill targeting approach.
They have an MOU with Canadian UCore Rare Metals (been on a hell of a run itself) which should just about be coming to a head with a binding offtake/joint development agreement.
Aside from the REE they have high value Bauxite assets for which there is corporate action brewing (outright sale/JV/financed development)?
They're also getting to the pointy end of their tech development with a pilot plant being commissioned end of this calendar year next to Rio's aluminium smelter.
It's been a bit of a slog from the looks of it like the rest of it's REE peers but with multiple catalysts to drop over the coming weeks in a buoyant sector right now, with ABX particularly being able to plug some of the US demand for in-country REE processing (through the agreement with UCore) there's going to be significant interest shifting this one's way I believe. Today was a modest start of a significant run to come.
