The Salazar Project comprises granted tenements E63/1469, E63/1496 and E69/3982, highly prospective for REE clay exploration, within the Esperance district. In addition, as part of a recent transaction with Dundas Minerals Limited, West Cobar has acquired an additional four exploration licences – E63/2056, E63/2083, E63/2078 and E63/2063 – taking its Salazar REE Project landholding to a total of 1,171km2. All the ground is located on non-agricultural undeveloped state land approximately 120km north-east of the township of Esperance (Figure 1).
The Project benefits from its proximity to essential infrastructure (including port, rail, and air services) in nearby Esperance.
Potentially economic concentrations of REE, due to likely low mining cost and non-refractory extractability, occur in the overlying saprolitic clays. The near-surface REEs are concentrated in a zone around the interface between upper and lower saprolite.
Table 1: Newmont and O’Connor Deposits – Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource estimated by AMC Consultant
The Salazar project, consisting of Newmont and O’Connor, is a substantial 190 Mt at 1172 ppm TREO as per below:
| Cut-off (TREO ppm) |
Deposit | Category | Tonnes (Mt) | TREO1 (ppm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600 | Newmont | Indicated | 39 | 1216 |
| Inferred | 44 | 1029 | ||
| Indicated + Inferred | 83 | 1117 | ||
| O’Connor | Inferred | 107 | 1216 | |
| TOTAL | Indicated + Inferred | 190 | 1172 |
AMC Consultants were engaged to update the Mineral Resource estimate of the Newmont deposit. The previous resource estimate in 2015 by CSA Global (“CSA”) comprised an Inferred Mineral Resource of 43.5 Mt at 1192 ppm TREO.[1]
Following thae results of the phase 1 AC drill program, AMC Consultants have estimated a Total Mineral Resource of 83 Mt of 1117 ppm TREO (600ppm cut-off) at Newmont, including an Indicated Mineral Resource of 39 Mt of 1216 ppm TREO, in accordance with the JORC Code (2012). This Mineral Resource is shown below:
[1] CSA Global, 2015. Mineral Resource Estimate for Salazar Gold Pty Ltd, Esperance rare Earth Project, WA. Unpublished Report No R254.2015
| Cut-off (TREO ppm) |
Category | Tonnes (Mt) | TREO3 (ppm) | Magnet Rare Earths | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pr6O11 ppm | Nd2O3 ppm | Dy2O3 ppm | Tb4O7 ppm | ||||
| 600 | Indicated | 39 | 1216 | 51 | 206 | 36 | 6.1 |
| Inferred | 44 | 1029 | 46 | 180 | 29 | 5.1 | |
| Indicated + Inferred | 83 | 1117 | 48 | 192 | 33 | 5.6 | |
Table 2: Newmont Deposit Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource estimated by AMC Consultants
[1] CSA Global, 2015. Mineral Resource Estimate for Salazar Gold Pty Ltd, Esperance rare Earth Project, WA. Unpublished Report No R254.2015
[1] TREO = La2O3 + CeO2 + Pr6O11 + Nd2O3 + Sm2O3 + Eu2O3 + Gd2O3 + Tb4O7 + Dy2O3 + Ho2O3 + Er2O3 + Tm2O3 + Yb2O3 + Lu2O3 + Y2O3
Figure 2: Newmont block grades and air core drill holes. Looking NW, map grid = 1km x 1km
AMC Consultants have estimated Inferred Mineral Resources for titanium dioxide and HPA-alumina.
Included in, and outside, the Newmont REE Mineral Resource is a Mineral Resource (JORC Code 2012) of 29 Mt of 5.01% titanium dioxide (2 % Ti cut-off) – see Table 3.
| Cut-off Ti % |
Category | Saprolite Zone | Mt | Ti % | TiO2% | TREO ppm | Fe % | FeO % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Inferred | TREO >=600 | 20 | 3.1 | 5.2 | 1,183 | 8.9 | 11.4 |
| Inferred | TREO <600 | 9 | 2.8 | 4.7 | 428 | 10.2 | 13.1 | |
| Total | 29 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 942 | 9.3 | 12.0 | ||
Table 3: Newmont Deposit, Inferred TiO2 Mineral Resource
Table notes:
Saprolite 20 Mt >=600ppm TREO is contained within the current Newmont Mineral Resource estimate. Saprolite 9 Mt <600ppm TREO is additional to the current Newmont MRE. The model is currently not reported within a constraining nominal pit shell of any sort. This might change in future reporting.
A high titanium content in the REE mineralised saprolite (see Figure 3) occurs largely over amphibolite bedrock that contains ilmenite (FeTiO3).
Figure 3: Newmont deposit, section 6351000N, looking north, x10 Vertical exaggeration, block grades.
Additionally, AMC has estimated a Mineral Resource (JORC Code 2012) of 4 Mt of 29.6 % Al2O3 (alumina) potentially upgradeable for HPA feedstock, also included within, and outside, the Newmont REE Mineral Resource. High alumina material, as soft kaolinite (see Appendix 2 for chemical composition) occurs mostly in the upper saprolite. Overburden is about 10m depth and the mineralised interval about 10m thick. The alumina Mineral Resource estimate is divided into two parts, blocks within the 600ppm TREO Mineral Resource and blocks outside the Resource, see Table 4.
| Cut-off AI % |
Category | Saprolite Zone | Mt | AI % | AI2O3 % | TREO ppm | Fe % | K % | Si % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | Inferred | TREO >=600 | 2 | 15.6 | 29.5 | 909 | 4.22 | 0.25 | 20.1 |
| Inferred | TREO <600 | 2 | 15.7 | 29.6 | 276 | 2.84 | 0.21 | 22.6 | |
| Total | 4 | 15.6 | 29.6 | 657 | 3.67 | 0.23 | 21.1 | ||
Table 4: Newmont Deposit, Inferred Al2O3 (alumina) Mineral Resource
Table notes:
Saprolite 2 Mt >=600ppm TREO is contained within the current Newmont Mineral Resource estimate. Saprolite 2 Mt <600ppm TREO is additional to the current Newmont MRE. The model is currently not reported within a constraining nominal pit shell of any sort. This might change in future reporting.
AMC Consultants have also estimated a maiden Inferred Resource at O’Connor based on 24 historical air core drill holes and 30 air core holes drilled recently during phase 1. Inferred Reserves are limited conservatively to 250 m away from the drill lines.
| Cut-off (TREO ppm) |
Status | Tonnes (Mt) | TREO1 (ppm) | Magnet Rare Earths | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pr6O11 ppm | Nd2O3 ppm | Dy2O3 ppm | Tb4O7 ppm | ||||
| 600 | Inferred | 107 | 1216 | 61 | 195 | 11 | 2.3 |
Table 5: O’Connor deposit – Inferred Mineral Resource estimated by AMC Consultants
Compared to the Newmont deposit, the O’Connor deposit is higher in praseodymium and lower in dysprosium and terbium, reflecting the underlying granitic origin of the REE’s within the saprolite at O’Connor.
Figure 4: O’Connor Deposit, NE-SW section, looking north-west, x10 Vertical exaggeration, block grades
Over the past eight years, Salazar Minerals has commissioned Nagrom, Amdel, CSIRO Hydrometallurgy and TSW Analytical to conduct several programs of REE metallurgical testwork on Newmont mineralised samples collected in aircore drilling.
Recently Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) have been commissioned to advance the leach testwork further, and a phase 1 has been completed. Excellent rare earth metallurgical recoveries of up to 94% Magnet Rare Earth Oxide (MREO) were obtained from Newmont samples using a hydrochloric acid pathway, including an average of 68% (25g/L HCl) to 78% (100g/L HCl) MREO recovery from 7 out of 8 samples (8 hour liquor test). An average of 61% (25g/L HCl) to 76% (100g/L HCl) MREO recovery from 7 out of 8 samples (3 hour liquor test) was obtained. These leaching kinetics from the Newmont deposit indicate that further reduction in acid strength is achievable.
Simple screening has delivered up to 151% upgrade of rare earth grades, with the average TREO grade across the 8 samples averaging 3149 ppm at <38 µm.
A number of additional metallurgical test work and beneficiation studies are currently underway with ANSTO, Nagrom and the University of Newcastle.
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Perth WA, 6000
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