Dreadnought Resources has uncovered a significant new rare earths zone at its Stinger deposit in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, shifting the spotlight at its Mangaroon project beyond niobium.
Originally drilled for metallurgical sampling, one deep hole (CBDD011) unexpectedly hit 140 metres of rare earth mineralisation from 307 metres depth — the first time this style of mineralisation has been seen at the Gifford Creek carbonatite complex. Early analysis shows a strong concentration of neodymium and praseodymium, key elements in permanent magnets used across clean energy and defence sectors.
The find is considered highly promising, not only for its size and grade, but because weathering in similar zones elsewhere at Stinger has been shown to significantly upgrade mineral content. The shallower oxide zone above this new intercept, currently undergoing testing, may therefore hold even higher grades.
Dreadnought managing director Dean Tuck said the result adds to growing commercial interest in the project.
“The discovery of thick mineralised rare earths underneath Stringer is yet another example of the shallow, high-grade at Gifford Creek … [which] is one of the largest carbonatite complexes globally and already contains multiple critical minerals,” he said.
According to carbonatite expert Ross Chandler, the discovery of this new style of
carbonatite-hosted rare earths element (REE) mineralisation within the Gifford Creek Carbonatite represents a significant step change for REE exploration within the Gascoyne Province.
“With geochemical and geological similarities to major carbonatite-hosted REE deposits globally such as Mountain Pass (USA), the identification of Ba-Sr-enriched calcite carbonatite at Mangaroon opens up a new search space for both primary and weathered REE mineralisation in the central carbonatite complex,” Chandler said.
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