Rare earths drilling almost 50% complete
On Friday, our rare earths exploration Investment Lanthanein Resources (ASX: LNR) put out an update on its drilling program in Australia’s hottest rare earths real estate in WA.
LNR confirmed that it has completed 13 of the planned 30 holes and that drilling will be paused whilst a new rig is brought on site.
LNR expects the drilling program to recommence after ten days (from Friday).
Meanwhile, LNR will be scanning the first 13 holes with handheld XRF guns (on-site assaying tool) to see which holes warrant follow up drilling as the company waits for assays to come back from the lab.
This should mean LNR can calibrate its drilling program based on the most interesting drill hits to date.
LNR’s drilling program is less than 2.5km from Hastings Technology Metals’ Yangibana rare earths deposit (dubbed Australia’s next rare earths mine) and ~32km from Dreadnought Resourcs’ recent rare earths discoveries.
LNR shares important geological similarities with its bigger neighbours Hastings Technology Metals and Dreadnought Resources, which followed almost identical pathways to discoveries.
Here’s the exploration pathway and how LNR has followed it:
- They each confirmed that the outcropping ironstones were mineralised with rare earths through rock chip sampling programs - LNR has done this, returning grades of up to 8.01% in rock chips taken from outcroppings ✅
- They each ran geophysical surveys and ranked the highest priority targets ahead of drilling - LNR did this, pinpointing 12 high priority drill targets, ranked using the same methods Hastings used leading up to its discovery in 2016 ✅
- They each drilled into these targets and confirmed discoveries - LNR is drilling NOW 🔃
Hastings trades at a market cap of $496M, Dreadnought trades at a market cap of $350M.
LNR, on the other hand, currently trades with a market cap of just $53M.
We hope that a discovery by LNR can re-rate the company’s market cap in line with its peers, which trade at multiples of LNR’s current market cap.
