Lindian Resources Ltd (ASX:LIN) is moving swiftly to begin the first phase of a major definition drilling program at its Kangankunde Rare Earths Project in Malawi next month.
The company has commenced the mobilisation of earthmoving equipment to the site for grading of roads, clearing of work areas, reinstatement of roads to the hilltop and preparation of drill pads for the 12,500-metre drilling program.
A drilling contract for 10,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling and 2,500 metres of core drilling has been signed with Thompson Drilling, a company with extensive working experience in Malawi, with the drill rig to be mobilised this month.
Lindian said completion of the entire meterage would depend on when the wet season began although it is possible that drilling may continue in safer locations of the project area.
General location map of Kangankunde.
Fully funded
Lindian chief executive officer Alistair Stephens said: “The Lindian team has completed a substantial amount of the initial planning for the upcoming drill program.
"Kangankunde is the world’s best undeveloped rare earths project and this program is instrumental in the assessment of the extent and potential of rare earth mineralisation with respect to its grade and tonnage.
“Recent conversion of options into fully paid ordinary shares, coupled with our existing cash balance, means we are sufficiently funded to commence this drill program.
"As previously flagged, interest in Kangankunde from financiers, end-users and other industry participants is considerable and we are assessing longer-term funding opportunities with them. I consider that we are on the cusp of defining the world’s most significant rare earth deposit.”
Wide surface mineralisation
Drilling from the top of the Kangankunde hill will initially be limited to a relatively small area of 400 metres by 150 metres due to the topography.
Geological mapping has identified extensive surface mineralisation, estimated to be 650 metres long and 400 metres wide and consists of mixed carbonate breccia with visible monazite.
A zone of mixed carbonatite mineralisation and altered host rock mineralisation has been also identified and in places is up to 100 metres wide and envelopes the carbonatite core.
Little radioactive elements
Assay results from single isolated grab samples of mineralised rock from Kangankunde showed low levels of radioactive elements, with thorium at 28 parts per million (ppm) and uranium at 2 ppm.
Lindian will routinely carry out analysis for radionuclides from drilling and processing test-work samples and if this is an indicative result of the mineralisation, Kangankunde could be classified as a general goods material for transportation purposes, as opposed to Class Seven for radioactive materials, even when processed to a mineral concentrate.
Other results showed:
- Dolomite (magnesium calcium carbonate) 62.3%.
- Strontianite (strontium carbonate) 17.5%.
- Fluorapatite (calcium fluorophosphate) 14.7%.
- Monazite (rare earth phosphate) 5.6%.
- Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) Content (%) of monazite 2.6%.
- Percentage Neodymium and Praseodymum (Nd+Pr) of monazite 21%.
The Kangankunde deposit is about 90 kilometres north of the city of Blantyre and 15 kilometres from the regional town of Balaka.
It is within 3 kilometres of the sealed M1 highway, 4 kilometres from the high voltage trans-Malawian power grid and 25 kilometres from the Shire River, the only river to drain from the freshwater Lake Malawi.
The deposit has a historic inferred resource of mineralisation, which is exposed at the surface and open at depth.
Historic metallurgical test-work has demonstrated the mineralisation is amenable to low-cost gravity separation to produce a high-grade concentrate.
The deposit contains a central zone of carbonatite rocks passing outwards to a series of broadly concentric zones of altered agglomerate, altered host rock and ultimately into unaltered gneiss host rock.
Lindian will conduct extensive laboratory and pilot-scale test-work to determine the optimal processing route and potential product characteristics in 2023.
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