VHM Limited (ASX: VHM) just keeps on making rare earth discoveries in the Loddon Mallee region of Victoria. Only 22km north of the company’s proposed Goschen treatment plant, drilling has confirmed the presence of valuable heavy minerals (VHM) that are two times higher grade than the highest grade areas of Goschen. The deposit is called Nowie, and notably, it formed from multiple high grade strandline systems.

Drilling data from this 50 hole campaign, combined with geophysics, supports the notion that there is a near surface target up to 11km wide and 3km long that is open to both the north-west and south-west directions. With the drilling already completed being sufficient to generate an inferred mineral resource estimate, VHM is planning to get this declared in the very near future.The Nowie outcomes confirm that VHM has established a significant new Critical Minerals Province stretching over 55km of strike length in North West Victoria.

Image: VHM Limited: Nowie location map.

An interesting assay to examine is 3m @ 12.9% THM (total heavy mineral), 20% Zircon, 19% Rutile and 33% Leucoxene. It shows a high grade zone of mineralisation starting after a small amount of overburden, which is then followed by a medium grade zone, another high grade zone that pulled out 4m @ 5% THM, and another medium grade zone.

50m away, the same trend was observed. The upper high grade zone came back with 2m @ 12% THM, and the high grade zone underneath returned 4m @ 5.9% THM. 

VHM Managing Director Graham Howard was excited to press forward with resource delineation drilling: “We anticipate further resource definition work at Nowie will extend the scale of this prospect during the second half of 2023 and we look forward to releasing future results. 

“Having a third potential project option to consider [in addition to Goschen and Cannie] opens several possibilities for the Company that we will now introduce to discussions with interested offtake partners and potential strategic investors.”

Strandline vs WIM

Coarser sands that remained on shorelines due to their larger size are often referred to as strandline deposits, whereas finer mineral sands which typically settled in the basin of the ocean are referred to as WIM-style. WIM-style deposits are generally larger overall than strandline deposits, however they are notoriously hard to process given the fine grain nature of the deposit and resulting impurities in the zircon. Strandline deposits are frequently processed relatively easily.

Building on Goschen

The company’s Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) refresh for their flagship Goschen Rare Earths and Mineral Sands project noted in March 2023 with a pre-tax A$1.525 billion Net Present Value (NPV) and a 44% Internal Rate of Return (IRR).

VHM’s collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), where VHM’s Pilot Hydromet Plant was used, demonstrated that Goschen’s rare earth mineral concentrate (REMC) is highly amenable to conventional sulphate bake processing. The conversion of REMC to a high purity Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (MREC) was achieved.

Notably, the company demonstrated extractions of 97% for the critical light rare earth metals Neodymium and Praseodymium (Nd Pr), as well as 92% and 94% recoveries for critical heavy rare earth metals Dysprosium and Terbium (Dy Tb), respectively.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

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