Narraburra is a highly prospective REE project located 12km northeast of Temora in central west New South Wales
Godolphin secures 51% interest at Narraburra rare earths. (Credit: Khusen Rustamov from Pixabay)
Godolphin Resources Limited (ASX: GRL) (“Godolphin” or the “Company”) is pleased to advise that it has met the expenditure requirements to earn 51% ownership of the Narraburra Rare Earth Element (“REE”) Project (“Narraburra” or “the Project”), as part of the Company’s farm-in and joint venture agreement with EX9 Pty Ltd.
Narraburra is a highly prospective REE project located 12km northeast of Temora in central west New South Wales. It hosts a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 94.9 million tonnes at 739ppm TREO1, which includes a higher-grade component of 20 million tonnes at 1,079ppm TREO in accordance with JORC (2012) (refer ASX: GRL announcements: 19 April 2023 and 21 April 2023).
Management commentary:
Managing Director Ms Jeneta Owens said: “We are very pleased to have earned a controlling interest in Narraburra and we are confident that we can continue to extract considerable value for the Company’s shareholders from the Project and surrounding areas.
“Godolphin has undertaken a systemic, cost-effective exploration and development program which has provided the Company with a comprehensive understanding of the Project’s exploration and mining development potential. Work undertaken to date has included multiple drill programs, HyLogger spectral analysis and importantly, metallurgical testing, which will inform the pathways for downstream processing and low-cost development. Further, the Company has undertaken strategic initiatives to secure additional Exploration Licences to build a dominant landholding in the area.
“Now that we have secured a controlling interest in the Project, exploration and development work will continue to further grow the JORC 2012 MRE at Narraburra, as well as potentially defining resources in surrounding areas. Over the coming months, we look forward to providing additional updates on these work streams.”
Project overview:
The Narraburra area was first explored for rare earth elements (REE) associated with the Devonian-aged Narraburra Granite. The Project is situated approximately 340km west of Sydney and 12km northeast of Temora in central west NSW, in an established mining region.
To date, diamond drilling and other exploration initiatives undertaken by Godolphin have intersected broad zones of Rare Earth Element mineralisation in clay, saprock (clay-weathered rock) and in underlying fresh rock protolith material (refer ASX: GRL announcements: 11 November 2022 and 13 December 2022).
Exploration and development work undertaken and 2024 plan:
Godolphin has undertaken a number of exploration initiatives at Narraburra to unlock value for shareholders. This included mapping and multiple diamond drill programs. Diamond drilling allowed for the fast tracking of the metallurgical programs, with initial leach results achieving up to 92% recovery of key magnet minerals (Pr, Nd, Tb, Dy), (refer ASX announcement: 5 April 2023).
Drill results underpinned the delivery of a maiden JORC 2012 MRE in April 2023 (refer ASX Announcement: 19 April 2023), which was followed by HyLogger spectral analysis, QEMSCAN mineralogy and the commencement of metallurgical testing to unlock the Project’s low-cost development potential.
Based on work carried out to-date, the management team is increasingly confident in Narraburra’s development potential, which Godolphin will aim to unlock through additional drill programs to expand and upgrade the existing MRE during 2024, and commencement of a scoping mining study. The work program will also focus on geophysics, mapping and potential drill programs across the recently granted Cambrai licence (EL 9601) adjacent to the Project (refer ASX announcement: 24 October 2023) and Trungley (ELA 6677), should it be granted (refer ASX announcement: 28 November 2023).
The Company will provide additional updates on exploration plans as they materialise.
Source: Company Press Release