American Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ARR) is set to kick off 5,400 metres of drilling to define a maiden JORC resource at the 100%-owned Halleck Creek Rare Earths Project in Albany County, Wyoming.
The company has selected 36 reverse circulation (RC) holes to a depth of 150 metres each for a start, with an additional 19 holes permitted to enable a further expansion of the program.
FTE Drilling USA Inc has been contracted to perform the work and expects drilling to be completed by mid-December.
CQM Outcrop at Halleck Creek
Driving it forward
American Rare Earths managing director and CEO Chris Gibbs said: “We’re very excited to commence this drilling program to advance the massive Halleck Creek Project.
“The success of the maiden drill campaign saw us announce on September 1, 2022, the boosting of the exploration target by 328% to a globally significant 1.01-1.27 billion tonnes of rare earth mineralised rocks.
“After completing a A$14 million placement, announced on August 17, 2022, we are well capitalised to unlock the project’s potential and drive it forward into 2023 and beyond.
“Further encouragement for the progress of Halleck Creek came from the test-work results on ore from our large-scale La Paz project, announced last week. These are significant for both projects because of the similarities between the ore.
“We’ve also initiated metallurgy test-work specifically for Halleck Creek ore and look forward to providing an update on this as soon as results are available”.
Developing a maiden resource
Work on developing the first detailed geological models of the area to define the JORC resource will commence this quarter, with the maiden resource estimates aimed for release in the first three months of next year.
The company released the updated JORC-compliant exploration target estimate on September 1, 2022, which outlined between 1.01 and 1.27 billion tonnes of rare earth mineralised rocks with TREO grades ranging between 2,245 parts per million (ppm) and 2,807 ppm.
Halleck Creek exploration target estimates.
Assets in the US
American Rare Earths has assets in the growing rare earth metals sector of the United States, which is emerging as an alternative international supply chain to China's market dominance.
The global rare earth market is expected to reach US$20 billion by the mid-2020s.
The company's mission is to supply critical materials for renewable energy, green tech, electric vehicles, national security and a carbon-reduced future.