Australian Rare Earths granted approval

Australian Rare Earths (AR3) has secured approval for its second Exploration Program for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation (EPEPR) at the Overland uranium project in South Australia.

This second EPEPR expands the company’s exploration area by an additional 773 km², covering southern sections of the project.

With both EPEPR applications now approved, the company is set to begin its first phase of drilling in mid-October 2024.

AR3 has awarded a drilling contract to Wallis Drilling, securing a rig to execute the 5km aircore drilling campaign.

The program will target high-priority uranium prospects within the EL 7001 and EL 7003 tenements, which were identified through a combination of preliminary studies and historical drilling data.

“This additional EPEPR approval, ahead of schedule, is a most timely and welcome step forward in our exploration efforts at Overland, allowing us to access more of our high-priority targets during our inaugural drill program,” AR3 managing director and chief executive officer Travis Beinke said.

“With multiple high-priority targets across our significant 3,000km² project area, we are eager to get started in this initial area and begin to uncover the potential of this frontier uranium play.”

In a separate announcement, AR3 reported a significant 27 per cent increase in the mineral resource estimate (MRE) at its Koppamurra rare earths project.

The updated resource now stands at 236 million tonnes (Mt) at 748 ppm total rare earth oxide (TREO), compared to 186 Mt previously.

The higher-grade portion of the resource increased by 70 per cent, with 68 Mt grading over 1000 ppm TREO.

“This substantial increase in the mineral resource estimate, coupled with the improved grade and higher-grade tonnage, reinforces our belief in the project’s potential to become a strategically important, long-life supplier of critical rare earths,” Beinke said.

“The updated minerals resources estimate has underscored the significant potential for a shallow, higher-grade subset of the broader rare earth deposit.”

With exploration ongoing, AR3 believes there is significant growth potential, as the current resource only covers two per cent of Koppamurra’s 7,400 km² tenure.

“The latest mineral resource estimate continued to incorporate our improved understanding of the mineralised geological package, as well as incorporating element specific variography analysis,” IHC Mining Geological Services manager Greg Jones said.

“Targeted infill drilling by AR3 has identified thicker packages of mineralised clay while at the same time, tightening up the previously identified high grade areas.

“IHC Mining consider this mineral resource estimate to be a significant further improvement over the previous mineral resource estimate and an additional improvement to the overall JORC classification confidence.”