An initial assessment has confirmed that Kieshöhe has the potential to emerge as a major rare earth discovery alongside London-listed Kendrick Resources’ flagship Teufelskuppe project within the Bonya Rare Earth District, in Namibia.

Systematic portable X-ray fluorescence analysis was completed on seven previously untested historical drill holes, revealing an average total rare earth oxide (TREO) grade of 1.51%, dominated by high-value light rare earth elements including neodymium and praseodymium.

Every borehole ended in mineralised carbonatite or associated rare-earth-bearing dykes, indicating the system remains open at depth. The average borehole depth exceeded 85 m with all holes terminating in massive carbonatite or mineralised dykes.

Kieshöhe’s grades rank within the upper quartile of comparable hard-rock rare earth projects globally, Kendrick reports.

“These results mark an important milestone in the development of the Bonya rare earth project and significantly enhance our view of the potential scale of the district.

“Historically, Teufelskuppe was considered the dominant discovery within Bonya. However, our ongoing assessment of Kieshöhe increasingly indicates that this view may prove to be overly conservative.

“The discovery of widespread mineralisation, strong grades and, importantly, the fact that every borehole ended in mineralised carbonatite, gives us growing confidence that Kieshöhe may represent a much larger rare earth system,” chairperson Colin Bird highlights.

While Teufelskuppe remains a highly significant rare earth project, current evidence suggests Kieshöhe could ultimately possess greater tonnage potential, he points out.

“The possibility that both projects form part of an extensive mineralised district opens up an exciting opportunity to define a rare earth resource of truly world-class scale,” Bird acclaims.

With average grades of 1.51% TREO, placing Kieshöhe in the upper quartile of comparable hard-rock rare earth projects globally, together with high-grade intercepts of up to 5.46% TREO, Kendrick believes the project has the potential to become a strategically important rare earth asset in its own right.

Accordingly, the company has intensified exploration and drilling activities across both Kieshöhe and Teufelskuppe.

“Our objective is to define a combined resource capable of supporting one of the most significant rare earth developments globally and establishing Bonya as a strategically important future source of critical minerals,” Bird explains.

“At the time of releasing the recent in-house valuation, we had not received the KH drill results and thus KH is assigned no value in the valuation report. The plan remains to integrate the two projects which will significantly enhance the overall project value and the contribution of Bonya in the rare earth arena,” he adds.