The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Program supports larger Nechalacho rare earths mine strategy North of 60 Mining News - November 21, 2023
Click on image for larger Nechalacho rare earth deposit map.
Vital Metals Ltd. Nov. 21 reported that high-grade rare earths encountered with this year's drilling at Tardiff confirms the higher-grade expansion potential of this larger deposit on the company's Nechalacho project in Northwest Territories.
The Australia-based company gained notoriety in 2021 with the start of operations at Nechalacho, marking the first and only rare earths mine in Canada.
High-grade ore mined from the North T deposit at the project was upgraded with an ore sorter and shipped to Saskatchewan, where it was to be processed into mixed rare earths product that could then be forwarded on to third-party facilities for the final step of separating the interlocked rare earths into separate elements that can be used by manufacturers.
Vital, however, ran into financial difficulties that forced it to shut down the Saskatchewan processing facility and reevaluate its strategy at Nechalacho.
The new Nechalacho strategy is centered on mining Tardiff, a deposit that hosts 119 million metric tons of resources averaging 1.4% (1.67 million metric tons) total rare earth oxides.
While much lower grade than the 9% rare earth resource found at North T, Tardiff is higher grade than the average deposits being mined globally.
Tardiff also happens to be enriched with 416,000 metric tons of neodymium and praseodymium; the highest demanded rare earths due to their use in the permanent magnets that go into electric vehicle motors and a wide range of high-tech devices.
To advance its Tardiff strategy, however, Vital needed to raise cash to carry out its plan, pay back debtors, and get relisted on the Australia Stock Exchange.
Earlier this month, the Australian company announced Shenghe Resources Holding Co. has agreed to invest up to A$14.8 million (US$9.4 million) to buy an 18.2% stake in Vital in two tranches.
This includes an initial A$5.9 million (US$3.4 million) to acquire 589 million Vital shares at A1 cent each, which will give Shenghe a 9.99% stake in the Australian junior.
With the cash to pay off past expenses and move its Nechalacho plans forward, Vital announced results from 23 of the 74 resource expansion and upgrade holes it drilled at Tardiff in 2023.
Highlights from this batch of assays include:
• 50.4 meters averaging 1.8% total rare earth oxides from a depth of 15.6 meters in hole L23-634.
• 81.9 meters averaging 1.6% TREO from a depth of 8.2 meters in hole L23-636.
• 37.6 meters averaging 1.8% TREO from a depth of 8.5 meters in hole L23-646.
• 79.7 meters averaging 1.5% TREO from a depth of 13.3 meters in hole L23-657.
• 85.4 meters averaging 1.6% TREO from a depth of 47 meters in hole L23-669.
• 56 meters averaging 1.2% TREO from a depth of 34 meters in hole L23-685.
"The unearthing of more shallow higher grade mineralization on Tardiff reinforces our focus of marrying value, with project de-risking as we look to expand areas of higher grade while aiming to convert to higher confidence resource categories, said Vital Metals Managing Director Geordie Mark. "Further drilling is warranted to expand high-grade areas in several directions, which with 2023 drilling, could be folded into a resource update to inform mine plan design in our ongoing scoping study."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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