3 August 2021
Vital Metals Ltd (ASX:VML) (“Vital”, “Vital Metals” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce it has received outstanding first-pass assay results from the Tardiff Zones 2 and 3 within its 100%-owned Nechalacho Rare Earth Project, Northwest Territories, Canada. The results have added potential to extend the mine life of the Nechalacho project significantly, with further drilling needed to better define the Tardiff zones, which remain open in all directions.
Vital is commencing Stage 1 rare earth production at Nechalacho via ore sorting, with plans to mine the North T deposit in Stage 1. Stage 2 will focus on the Tardiff deposit, where it anticipates building a large-scale, long life rare earth mining and processing operation.
Vital Metals Managing Director Geoff Atkins said, “Drilling results from Tardiff Zones 2 and 3 have shown the potential for Nechalacho to be a much larger rare earths operation than we anticipated. We completed the drilling at Tardiff as part of defining a Mine Plan for Stage 2 operations at Nechalacho, which will initially focus on Tardiff Zone 1, but with the results showing mineralisation in both Zone 2 and 3 remaining open, we will plan further drilling in these areas over the next year to get a better understanding of the mineralisation and determine if the three zones are connected.“
“Our recent metallurgical test work, reported in recent weeks, showing material from Tardiff Zone 1 was amenable to a similar process flowsheet, with an additional beneficiation step such as flotation, to that being utilised at North T, has given us great confidence for the potential of Nechalacho to be built into a large-scale, long-life rare earths operation. We will complete further metallurgical testwork Tardiff Zones 1 material to define a process flowsheet to provide further clarity on the scope of Stage 2.”
“With the commencement of production at Nechalcho, we are excited about the future of this project, which continues to grow in potential and is turning into one of the worlds best light rare earth projects.”
The Nechalacho rare earth project consists of two distinct deposits which Vital will develop over two stages. The North T deposit hosts a high-grade resource of 101,000 tonnes at 9.01% LREO 1 in the measured and indicated JORC 2012 categories, making it one of the highest grade rare earth deposits in the world. Development of this deposit in currently underway under Stage 1. The second deposit, the Upper Zone where the Tardiff Zones are located, boasts an impressive light rare earth oxides (LREO) resource of 94.7 million tonnes at 1.46% TREO 2 in the measured, indicated and inferred JORC 2012 categories and will be the focus of expanded operations in Stage 2.
Vital’s drilling program targeted three high-grade REO zones previously identified in wide-spaced historic drilling by Avalon Materials Inc and its predecessors. These zones are known as Tardiff Zones 1, 2 and 3.
Tardiff Zones 1 and 3 were drilled on a close spacing (25m x 25m) to enable their resource confidence levels to be upgraded so mining and processing studies can be carried out on these zones. The drilling at Tardiff Zone 2 was designed to get a better understanding of high-grade REO mineralisation that is not currently in the resource estimation released in 2019. All drill holes were drilled to a maximum depth of 72m vertical.
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