Dreadnought Resources Sets ‘Conservative’ Exploration Target
THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Dreadnought Resources’ (ASX: DRE) rare earths exploration target announced this week is conservative, managing director Dean Tuck told Resources Roadhouse on the sidelines of the 2023 RIU Explorers Conference. By Ngaire McDiarmid
Dreadnought recently unveiled an exploration target of 50-100 million tonnes at 0.9-1.3 per cent total rare earth oxide (TREO) for the Yin ironstone complex at its Mangaroon project in the Gascoyne.
Yin already contains a resource comprising 14.36 million tonnes at 1.13 per cent TREO.
“We believe we’re on a globally significant region, between Hastings delivering their [Yangibana] resource and their exploration target and our discoveries and our resources we’ve put out and now our exploration target,” Tuck said.
“We’re trying to show the scale of the opportunity.”
The exploration target excludes both the underground potential and the C1-C7 carbonatites discovered at the end of 2022, Tuck said.
He sees potential for a large tonnage, long life, globally significant source of neodymium and praseodymium at Mangaroon.
Tuck explained Dreadnought was “not going to be drilling this for eternity” and wanted to deliver a 30-50 million tonnes resource then start study work to prove the economics of the project, before proving up additional resources.