ASX-listed Ionic Rare Earths has released more confirmatory results from drilling on the Makuutu rare earths project, in Uganda.
The company completed Tranche 5 of an 8 220 m Phase 4 drill programme in October last year, which further confirms Makuutu as a large-scale, ionic adsorption clay-hosted rare earth element project, with extension potential to the east and northwest.
The Tranche 5 submission includes 110 drill holes within the existing inferred and indicated mineral resource estimate (MRE) at the Makuutu Central Zone, resource area one, and also evaluated Exploration Targets C and E that were excluded from the 2021 MRE.
Notable intervals reported from the Tranche 5 assay results include 7.4 m grading 1 829 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 3.2 m; 11.4 m grading 1 567 ppm TREO from 3.3 m and 10.7 m grading 1 489 ppm TREO from 3 m.
“These latest tranche drill assays align with both expectation and the prior four tranches reported to date from the Phase 4 drill programme at Makuutu. The results, once again, clearly show a very thick rare earths-bearing clay system, under minimal cover.
“With this batch, the Phase 4 drilling assay data has nearly all been delivered, and the resource geologist engaged. The Makuutu resource remains on course for a significant upgrade in confidence in the near term, with the MRE update advancing Makuutu another step closer to our goal of submitting a mining licence application later in 2022,” states Ionic MD Tim Harrison.