Altona Rare Earths plc is due to drill one of two orebodies with results to be included in the inaugural JORC mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Monte Muambe project in Mozambique.
TARGETS
The company expects to resume drilling on or around 15 July, with Spartan Drilling Services Limitada conducting operations.
The programme will initially focus on in-fill and down-dip drilling at Target 4, which is one of the two orebodies, and exploration drilling at Target 3 which could potentially increase the high-grade ore resource.
2022 ASSAYS
The company has received a number of laboratory assay results from the 2022 drilling campaign for integration into the database for the MRE work.
Altona said that the results continued to be consistent with the company’s own preliminary findings of high-grade zones totalling 6.5 million tons at 2.47% TREO to 11.5 million tons at 2.41% TREO.
The remainder of the 2022 drilling campaign focused on on-strike and down-dip extensions of Target 1’s high-grade zone to build the MRE database.
SCOPING STUDY
The company also continues to work towards publication of its scoping study, with metallurgical and mineralogical tests continuing.
Mozambican environmental consultant GeoAmbiante Limitada will cover the environmental and social aspects of the study.
“We have a very busy second half of 2023 ahead of us, with a number of objectives to achieve; the MRE and scoping study being our immediate focus,” said chief executive Cedric Simonet.
“Considerable attention will be given to the metallurgy of Monte Muambe, a key parameter for carbonatite hosted REE projects.
“Altona’s strategy is to focus its exploration on high-grade ore to fast-track the project towards production and help meet the ever-increasing gap between magnet metals supply and demand.”