Prospech Identifies High-Grade Rare Earth Oxides and Hafnium over 4km Strike at Jokikangas Project, Finland
11 April 2023
Highlights
- Mineralisation database[i] at recently acquired Jokikangas project and surrounding Otanmaki area returns rare earth element oxide (REO) intercepts in diamond drill hole samples over a strike length of 4 kilometres.
- Results[ii] include:
- KA02: 0.20m @ 24,448 ppm TREO and 4,700 ppm Niobium from 74.2m
- KA03: 0.15m @ 15,346 ppm TREO and 2,980 ppm Niobium from 9.2m
- KA03: 0.17m @ 8,690 ppm TREO and 2,030 ppm Niobium from 57.3m
- JO11: 0.20m @ 2,106 ppm TREO from 54.1m
- JO12: 0.20m @ 1,704 ppm TREO from 26.9m
- JO12: 0.40m @ 4,509 ppm TREO from 42.2m
- JO13: 0.50m @ 7,556 ppm TREO and 940 ppm Hafnium from 22.6m
- JO13: 0.30m @ 10,445 ppm TREO and 1,160 ppm Hafnium from 32.8m
- KO06: 0.40m @ 2,865 ppm TREO and 510 ppm Hafnium from 85.6m
- Drill core sampling was limited to narrow intervals for academic purposes, resulting in only narrow intersection intervals reported.
- Prospech has commenced sampling wider intervals of the Jokikangas drill core.
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- Drill core is available from 36 diamond drill holes at Jokikangas and 68 diamond drill holes at Korsnas.
- Prospech has applied to expand the Jokikangas project to cover open ground with reported vanadium mineralisation.
Prospech Managing Director Jason Beckton commented: “We are delighted to reveal results from our archive search and compilation of historical drill core at Jokikangas as the new Bambra Oy assets are incorporated into our portfolio.
According to Oulo University and Geological Survey of Finland, the peralkaline alkali feldspar granites are the most probable source for the Rare Earth Element (REE) and High Field Strength Element (HFSE) mineralised felsic dikes and sheet-like intrusions. Magnetic anomalies within the “enriched” alkali feldspar granite block and its surroundings, as well as the contact areas of this block against the monzogranite block, offer interesting potential for REE-HFSE mineralisation.
High Field Strength Elements which include Niobium and Hafnium are characterised by their ability to form strong bonds with other atoms, due to their electronic structure. This property makes them useful in a variety of technological applications where strength, durability and resistance to corrosion are required.
There is a significant increase in demand for locally supplied critical minerals in Europe and the government is strongly committed to fulfilling as much of the demand as possible from local sources.
The brownfield targets of Jokikangas, Korsnas, and Saarenkylä in Finland, which have been explored since 2018, provide us with an exciting opportunity to enter the REE and lithium space in the EU and we are planning to accelerate our exploration on the back of these results.”
About Finland and the Finland Projects
Finland is recognised as a favourable mining jurisdiction within the European Union and has been ranked ninth globally in the 2021 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies' Policy Perception Index and 13th in the Investment Attractiveness Index, surpassing jurisdictions such as Queensland, NSW, and Victoria.
Location map of the Bambra projects in Finland
Prospech's geological team has prior experience working in Finland, and the acquisition of Bambra will provide a local permitting and administration team with extensive country experience.
Project summaries
Extensive mapping and sampling of the mineralised horizons was conducted by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), and Prospech aims to prioritise the grade and tonnage potential of each occurrence to plan and permit drilling in the near future.
Jokikangas REE Project
Jokikangas REE project encompasses two blocks, Jokikangas and Honkamäki, covering a total area of 28.37km2, while the third-party Otanmaki (05) Oy tenure is indicated by the blue area in the map bello. Jokikangas and Honkamäki cover a REE-vanadium mineralised belt of rocks.
Jokikangas tenements
Elongated bodies containing up to 2.0% TREE are characterised by sericitic alteration and a spatial relationship with pegmatites in a mineral assemblage that includes fergusonite (Nb, Y, REO), allanite (LREE), and columbite-tantalite (Nb).
Prospech holds rights to exploration tenure surrounding the Kontioaho and Katajakangas targets currently held by Otanmaki (O5) Oy, with mineralisation that is continuous but lightly drilled. The mineralisation at Katajakangas features a high-grade zone approximately 12m thick in its central part, surrounded by a lower-grade zone at the margins.
Archived drillhole data indicates an opportunity to extend mineralisation northwest of Otanmaki (05) Oy’s Kontioaho operation and west of the Katajakangas operation (both depicted as red dots on the Otanmaki (05) Oy map above) onto the Jokikangas project.
Korsnas REE Project
The Korsnas REE project surrounds a former lead mine at Korsnas, which operated from 1959 to 1972 and produced 0.87Mt of ore with an average of 3.6% Pb. The deposit was found to be prospective for REE due to the presence of allanite and a few other REE minerals.
During pilot production of an REE concentrate in the early 1970s, it was discovered that the ore contained 0.83% TREO. The mineralisation is situated in a fault zone that trends north-south and is filled with a vein consisting of coarse-grained calcite, feldspar, diopside and REE-bearing apatite.
Previous mine operators have reported total REE content of samples ranging from 0.7% to 2.2%, with LREE being the dominant component. The samples also exhibit high europium (Eu) content, with values ranging from 66 to 242 ppm and thorium (Th) content ranging from 107 to 604 ppm.
There is core from 68 government stored drillholes from the immediate vicinity of the Korsnas mine that remain unsampled and there is also a group of unmined carbonate veins or dykes that up to 20m wide that may contain REE grades.
Saarenkylä Lithium-Berrylium Project
The Saarenkylä exploration reservation area is situated in a region with a known occurrence of lithium pegmatite, where lithium-cesium-tantalum (+/- beryllium) has been observed in exposed sequences of pegmatite.
The area is located within the Northern Ladoga belt, which is known for various minerals such as Sn, Zn, Pb, U, Au, W, Fe, and V. A mineral occurrence has been identified in pyroxene skarn with potential associations of nearby mineralisation within the Myerskaja Fault zone.
The mineralisation at this location includes occurrences of beryl, bismuthinite (Bi), scheelite (W), cassiterite (Sn), and native gold, which are conformable. Field mapping and sampling will be required to determine the continuity of the occurrence.
Prospech has filed a new reservation notification with the Finnish Mining Authority to extend the project area over the known lithium pegmatite occurrence area.
For further information, please contact.
Jason Beckton
Managing Director
Prospech Limited
+61 (0)438 888 612
Competent Person’s Statement
The information in this Report that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mr Jason Beckton, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Beckton, who is Managing Director of the Company, has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Mr Beckton consents to the inclusion in this Report of the matters based on the information in the form and context in which it appears.
This announcement has been authorised for release to the market by the Managing Director
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