Shares in Cobra Resources PLC (COBR) ticked up by just over 4% in early trade Tuesday, after the company announced that bench scale testing of a core sample at its Boland rare earths project in Australia had returned an exceptionally high head grade.
Cobra plans to undertake in-situ recovery of rare earths at Boland.
The sample was enriched in high value magnet and heavy rare earth metals, showing 0.5 metres at 4,506 parts per million total rare earth oxide from a depth of 26.7 metres.
A second sample is being prepared for further bench scale ISR studies.
Metallurgical testing by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) aimed at demonstrating the suitability for ISR mining - a low cost, low-disturbance method - is now nearing completion, with full results expected by the end of June 2024.
The testing is designed to emulate the ISR process, at laboratory scale.
The permeable geology that hosts ionic rare earth mineralisation at the Boland project is globally unique and is enabling this process to be tested in a first for controlled aquifer ISR mining of rare earth metals.
What’s more the grades being encountered are favourable in comparison to highly valued South American ionic rare earth projects, owing to the high heavy rare earth content, which amounts to around 28% of the TREO.
Assays have now confirmed rare earth mineralisation across an extensive area totalling 139 square kilometres.
"Ionic rare earth projects are desirable for their low extraction cost which is a function of simple metallurgy,” said Rupert Verco, chief executive of Cobra.
“Should we be successful in bypassing the challenges associated with handling and processing clays through ISR, we can confidently deliver a compelling, low-cost, environmentally credentialed source of heavy and magnet rare earths.”
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The head grade of the sample under recovery testing is significant - enriched in heavy and magnet rare earths and present within permeable geology. If the company can emulate initial the recoveries achieved, it could mark out Boland as globally significant.
The economic benefits of mining in-situ dovetail nicely with the modern agenda for mining with a cleaner footprint. Since there’s no need for an in-situ method to break ground in any significant way, the environmental impact can be kept to a minimum. ISR brings the rare earths into solution directly from within the orebody, without mining, haulage and traditional processing.
And don’t forget, Cobra's Wudinna tenements, on which Boland is located, also contain extensive orogenic gold mineralisation, including a 279,000 ounce gold resource, characterised by potentially open-pittable, high-grade gold intersections.