Impact Minerals to Commence Drilling at Arkun REE Project

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) has the tools out for commencement of an aircore drilling program at the Hyperion rare earth element (REE) prospect, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Arkun project in the southwest of Western Australia.

Impact Minerals will be drilling approximately 40 holes for 2000 metres to test a previously identified REE soil geochemistry anomaly at Hyperion.

The company has earlier reported results of up to 5,880 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth element oxides and yttrium (TREO +Y), which it claimed as some of the highest TREO-in-soil results reported recently in Western Australia.

Other REE soil geochemistry anomalies have been identified at the Swordfish and Horseshoe targets.

Impact has defined an area over three square kilometres at greater than 1,000ppm TREO+Y at Hyperion.

Gathered data indicates Hyperion to hold potential to be a very large target for clay-hosted REE mineralisation immediately below the laterite cap, which is only a few metres thick in most places making it a priority area for drilling.

“The discovery of the Hyperion REE prospect was a significant breakthrough in exploring the Arkun project, and we are eager to drill test the anomaly to assess the depth extent of the weathered clay that may host the REE mineralisation,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The key to an economic discovery is to evaluate how easily the REEs can be extracted through simple acid leaching of clays and, so we will be sending samples for preliminary test work as quickly as possible.

“Given this is the first-ever drill program at Arkun, and that several other significant REE anomalies remain to be tested at Arkun, for example Swordfish and Horseshoe, the extraction characteristics will have an important bearing on any future resource definition drilling.”

 

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