Lanthanein Resources Ltd (ASX:LNR) has returned ultra-high bright kaolin results described as “exceptional” in tests on drilling samples from the Koolya Kaolin Project in Western Australia.
Brightness analysis competed on samples from first-pass aircore drilling returned results of up to 94.57% while the kaolin assays show very low contained deleterious elements.
The best visual result from the wide-spaced drill program completed in December 2022 was 30 metres of bright white kaolin from just 4 metres in hole KAC014.
“A great result”
Lanthanein technical director Brian Thomas said, “The exceptional brightness results in samples from our first pass aircore drilling at Koolya Project is a great result.
“There is a significant areal extent of high quality bright white kaolin to support the potential for a significant kaolin resource and high purity alumina (HPA) feedstock project to be delineated with further drilling.
“These recent results are in line with our expectations following the exceptional visual results in drill samples.”
Aircore drilling
A wide-spaced aircore drill program was completed in December 2022, with drill holes spaced 500 metres apart. This covered 15 kilometres of prospective kaolin-rich granite and intersected widespread kaolin of varying thickness.
Analysis was completed on the samples to quantify the specific characteristics such as ISO Brightness, Alumina content and rare earth elements (REE).
A total of 10 samples had ISO Brightness greater than 79.35 and four samples greater than 800ppm TREO.
Further analysis will be undertaken by Lanthanein to better quantify the presence of kaolinite and halloysite using XRD analysis.
“Growing importance”
“High-purity kaolin is of growing importance as a critical feedstock in the processing of high purity alumina (HPA) which is being used in lithium-ion batteries, LED lighting, semiconductors and sapphire glass,” Thomas said.
“Samples are also currently being analysed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to quantify the kaolinite/halloysite content.
“Halloysite can be used in nanotechnologies for a range of industry applications including carbon sequestration, agriculture, energy, and health.”
Encouraged by REEs
Thomas said the company was also greatly encouraged by the presence of REEs with values of up to 1220ppm TREO.
“Exploring for critical minerals and rare earths is of paramount importance for our company as we aim to find the future-facing minerals used in the global clean energy transition,” he added.
Following the positive results further infill and step-out drilling will be undertaken by the company in the second and third quarters of 2023 to assist with generating a mineral resource estimate by the December quarter of 2023.