Updates re Rare Earth & Gold Projects
Sonic drilling approved for Boland rare earths project; metallurgical studies to optimise dysprosium and terbium recovery; Wudinna gold project under review.
- Wudinna Gold Mineral Resource Estimate 279,000 Oz
- Wudinna gold resource depth all ounces within 200m of surface
- Wudinna orogenic gold targets 22 identified targets
- Wudinna target grades 16 g/t to 37.4 g/t gold
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Cobra (LSE: COBR), the mineral exploration and development company advancing a potentially world-class ionic Rare Earth Elements ("REEs") discovery at its Boland Project ("Boland") in South Australia, is pleased to provide the following updates on its Boland rare earths and Wudinna gold projects.
Boland Rare Earth Project
Sonic drilling to commence soon
Following recent aircore drilling which demonstrated rare earth enrichment across a highly scalable footprint, all permitting approvals and pre-planning for sonic drilling have now been completed. 10-15 holes (~500m) are due to be drilled as soon as the Company's preferred contractor becomes available.
Sonic core drilling, which uses high-frequency, resonant energy to advance a core barrel into subsurface formations, will investigate the mineralised interface, where higher grades within the in situ recoverable zones can be expected, and inform the Company's strategy for resource drilling. It will also enable density measurements and greater geological definition to support a forthcoming Mineral Resource Estimate.
Scaled metallurgy
The strategic importance of terbium ("Tb") and dysprosium ("Dy") has been highlighted in current Chinese export control measures. The maiden Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate produced from Boland ore is enriched in such heavy rare earths and the Company believes its mining process and unique chemistry provides an opportunity to further enrich the quantities of Dy and Tb through the reduction of Cerium and Lanthanum. Follow-up metallurgical optimisation studies will commence next month and will aim to reduce unvaluable REEs. Low-cost measures including phased in situ recovery ("ISR") and the use of oxidants within the impurity removal process will be explored.
Infield permeability testing
In further preparation for the planned infield ISR testing, two additional monitoring bores were installed last month. This will support initial tracer studies, aimed at evaluating production rates achievable through ISR, a low cost, low environmental risk form of mining. To date, 12 months of baseline environmental data have been captured, and the permitting and environmental approval processes to permit field testing are underway.
Wudinna Gold Project
With gold trading at record high prices exceeding US$3,000 per ounce, the Company is pleased to advise it is evaluating opportunities for resource development and low-cost options for progressing the Wudinna Gold Project towards production. While there can be no certainty as to the timing or outcome of these advancements, the Board believes the gold development opportunity at Wudinna is attractive to projects with operational synergies.
Wudinna has a 279,000 Oz defined JORC Gold Mineral Resource Estimate with potential additional gold resource growth through infill and further extensional drilling. There are a further 22 orogenic gold targets identified with significant grades of between 16 g/t and 37.4 g/t gold outside of the current resource. Notably, Wudinna's gold resource is shallow with all ounces occurring within 200m of surface, presenting as suitable for low cost, camp scale open pit extraction.
Rupert Verco, Managing Director of Cobra, commented:
"Building on a successful first stage of aircore drilling at Boland, higher cost sonic drilling will more precisely investigate the mineralised interface, demonstrating significant rare earth grade upside. In the current geopolitical climate, with China placing export controls on certain rare earths, Cobra's opportunity is to demonstrate Boland as a low-cost, environmentally credentialled reliable source of terbium and dysprosium.
Separately, I am pleased to note the strong gold price is supporting possible advancements in our gold assets where operational synergies could bring forward a pathway to production."
Further information relating to Boland are presented in the appendices.
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Appendix 1: Background information - the Boland Project and ISR
Figure 1: Comparison between the Chinese and the proposed Boland process for ISR mining of REEs
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