Axel REE has launched a maiden auger drilling campaign at its Caldas project in Brazil’s Poços de Caldas alkaline complex, a renowned region for rare earth elements (REE).
The program will initially target five high-priority zones across 222 square kilometres, focusing on areas within the Caldera and adjacent to high-grade ionic adsorption clay REE discoveries by Meteoric Resources and Viridis Mining.
“We are extremely excited to initiate this drill program in our Caldas Project, in a region of the recent high-grade discoveries of Meteoric Resources and Viridis Mining,” Axel managing director Fernando Tallarico said.
“We will commence exploration on our tenements from inside this extraordinary alkaline Caldera and progressively investigate our tenements along the edges and in the near surroundings, where we have already received encouraging surface sample results.”
The Caldas Project has already shown promise, with a previous geochemistry program returning surface grab samples with up to 2420ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO), including 488ppm neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) and 30ppm dysprosium-terbium (DyTb).
Current auger drilling will further explore newly identified clay-rich zones along the Caldera’s edges, assessing the depth of saprolite profiles and potential REE mineralisation.
“Our novel premise that high-grade REE mineralisation could occur along the contact zone of the alkaline complex is coming to fruition, with these newly discovered weathered zones and prior geochem results supporting our program,” Tallarico said.
“This auger program is part of our IPO strategy to aggressively advance our REE projects.
“Our 2600m first phase diamond drilling program at the Caladão project is in progress and we are excited to add a program at our Itiquira REE/niobium project in central Brazil in due course.”
Axel said it would keep shareholders updated on the progress of the Caldas and Caladao drill programs and further exploration programs it has planned as part of its IPO strategy.
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