JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Rainbow Rare Earths plans to increase production at its Gakara mine, in Burundi, to an annualised rate of 5 000 t/y by the end of this year.
This follows after the company discovered significant rare earth element (REE) mineralisation during its maiden drilling campaign at Gakara.
“The majority of the drill holes completed to date have been focused on just the first of five targets at Kiyenzi and we are excited to have already discovered new rare earth mineralisation, up to 2 m thick in some cases.
“The discovery of REE-mineralised breccias is significant as it proves that the Gakara project has potential to include sizeable deposits over and above existing well-known vein stockworks,” said Rainbow CEO Martin Eales.
He further noted that the coming months are set to be highly active on the ground.
In conjunction with the ongoing production and sale of high-grade concentrate from the Gasagwe deposit, Rainbow will be completing the Phase 1 targets over the coming weeks, and are planning for and committed to Phase 2 of the drill programme with the target of delivering a code-compliant resource estimate by the end of the fourth quarter of this year.
“I look forward to reporting the results of our exploration efforts with a view to expanding on our current mining operations at Gakara,” Eales added.