PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Ionic Rare Earths has reported a three-fold increase in the mineral resource estimate at its Makuutu project, in Uganda.
The mineral resource estimate at Makuutu is now estimated at 315-million tonnes, at 650 parts per million total rare earth oxide, representing a 210% increase on the previous resource estimate.
The updated estimate places Makuutu among the world’s largest ionic absorption clay deposits, said Ionic on Wednesday.
The increase in the resource estimate followed on from an additional 4 754 m of drilling between October 2019 and 2020.
“This is a fantastic result for the company and materially exceeds the long-held expectatyion that the company has had since first acquiring an interest in Makuutu back in August 2019,” said Ionic MD Tim Harrison.
“In just over 18 months, we have been able to advance the highly encouraging exploration target to now confirm Makuutu to be one of the largest ionic absorption clay deposits outside of China, with one of the largest publicly held total rare earth oxide mineral resource estimates globally.”
“The magnitude of this mineral resource will provide a platform for the company to now look to finalise the Makuutu scoping study, which will reflect the significant nature of the resource, underpinning what we anticipate will be a long-term, low-capital and high margin critical and heavy rare earth producing asset.”