ASX-listed Ionic Rare Earths is planning on drilling an additional 2 100 m as part of its Phase 4 infill drilling programme at the Makuutu rare earths project, in Uganda, taking the total planned drilling to 7 800 m.
The company has three drill rigs on site, which have already completed 5 200 m of drilling to date.
The additional drilling is intended to increase resource confidence from inferred to indicated classification on the large resources Area 1.
Currently, this area has an inferred resource of 96-million tonnes. The company intends for the indicated and measured resource base to be more than 250-million tonnes.
Following the drilling programme, Ionic will progress to completing a feasibility study and, following this, submit a mining licence application in the second half of 2022.