American Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ARR) continues to highlight the potential of its Halleck Creek Project in Albany County, Wyoming, with the project’s maiden drilling campaign demonstrating consistent rare earth mineralisation from surface to the current drill depth of 150 metres.
The company has completed 14 reverse circulation (RC) holes for a total of 2,125 metres in the Red Mountain project area, with about 1,400 samples collected and shipped for analysis.
This deposit remains open laterally and at depth, with three holes remaining to be drilled.
Micrograph of clinopyroxene quartz monzonite (CQM) rocks in RC holes to depths of 150 metres.
Consistent outcome
“We are on track to define a significant JORC resource for this exciting project. These results, although preliminary in nature, are consistent with the core drilling conducted earlier this year," ARR managing director and chief executive officer Chris Gibbs said.
“Feedback from our geologists confirms our exploration target potential and reinforces our strong view that Halleck Creek has potential to be one of the largest, rare-earth projects in the United States.”
JORC resource in Q1
Each drill hole in the current program has been drilled to at least 150 metres, which is a 33% increase in depth compared to the previous exploration program.
ARR plans to extend several drill holes to depths of 200 metres to determine if mineralisation continues.
When this is completed, ARR will proceed to drill at the Overton Mountain area, where 26 RC holes are planned.
ARR hopes to conclude drilling in early December 2022, in time to reveal the project’s maiden JORC resource in the first quarter of 2023.
Red Mountain drill hole locations as of October 31, 2022.
More sampling
As part of the RC exploration drilling at Halleck Creek, ARR also collected XRF readings on chip samples to measure lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and praseodymium.
The samples are being analysed by ALS and the results will be announced when they become available.
New permits
ARR plans to begin geological modelling as soon as drilling concludes, with grade modelling commencing as soon as assay data are available.
The company has also filed exploration drilling notices with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to permit a further 27 drill holes in the recently claimed Bluegrass area located east of Overton Mountain at Halleck Creek.
ARR hopes to have approval for this exploration drilling permit early next year.