Eclipse Metals Ltd (ASX:EPM) is eager to advance the multi-commodity Ivigtût Project in southeastern Greenland after delivering samples from a maiden percussion drilling and trench sampling program to a laboratory in Perth, WA.
Lab results are expected to be received in June, followed by a comprehensive resource assessment after the initial chemical analysis of the samples.
Where necessary, bulk samples may be put through metallurgical tests.
The exploration company aims to begin field activities, including geological mapping, further drilling and trenching and base-line studies, in the current field season.
Barrels containing drill samples and trench samples.
Bulk sample bags containing crushed material from waste dumps.
A lesson in history
The Ivigtût deposit is known as the world’s largest historical cryolite open-cut mine with an added rare earth potential.
It produced 3.8 million tonnes of high-grade cryolite for use in the aluminium industry between 1865 and 1985.
Since 2021, Eclipse has been trying to understand the quartz, cryolite and siderite mineralisation at the deposit, and the potential for the Gronnedal-Ika carbonatite complex within the project to host rare earth elements (REE).
Using historical drill core stored in a government facility at Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, the company has been able to identify multi-commodity mineralisation within the project area.
Three Grønnedal diamond cores from the 1940s returned very significant analyses for REE, with up to 22,695 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) in one sample.
Additionally, lab results and complementary XRF readings suggest that the Grønnedal complex is partly enriched in dysprosium, praseodymium and neodymium – the latter is critical for high-performance magnets used by the automotive sector and in wind turbines.
Eclipse is the first company to test the REE and multi-element potential at both Grønnedal and Ivigtût.