Australian bauxite finds rare earths in Tasmania

Against a backdrop of rising prices and strong demand for rare earth elements, Australian bauxite listed on the Australian Stock Exchange hopes to develop rare earths on the basis of the accumulation of rare earth elements that have been discovered, which it has found in its DL130 bauxite mining rights in northeastern Tasmania.

The Sydney-based company said the discovery of rare earths appeared to be increasing in an arc from west to northeast, with recent holes drilled in the arc showing a concentration of 301 ppm, of neodymium oxide at a depth of just 9m.

Australian bauxite said that the high-grade exploration results were found in the northeast of the arc, and as a result of this work, the target channel area has been expanded from 500m to 700m wide. Mineralization is still open in all directions.

Australian bauxite encountered a channel with elevated rare earth elements in the west of the DL130 bauxite deposit. Subsequent exploration results show that the channel forms an arc, which may be an ancient water channel.

A large drilling sampling plan shows that the grade of rare earth elements has increased in the northeast, and further analysis of the latest sampling plan shows that the upward trend in the northeast has yet to be carried out.

Prices and demand for rare earths as strategic minerals have been rising steadily because of supply shortages and the rapid growth in the number of rare earth elements needed for super magnets used in applications such as electric cars, wind turbines, smartphones and military electronics.

Australian bauxite says the accumulation of rare earth elements in DL130 is rich in neodymium and praseodymium and, along with terbium and dysprosium, is the main rare earth element in super magnets.

The company is looking for economic resources around ion-adsorbed clay or water-soluble rare earth element deposits that can be developed for potential low-cost in-situ leaching operations.

The in-situ leaching operation will see the hole drilled in the form of a grid and select a central hole as the production well.

The leaching water is pumped into the surrounding boreholes, the rare earth elements are leached from the ore beds, and the water containing rare earth elements is extracted from the production wells.

The concentrates of rare earth metal oxides are then recovered through settling tanks, which can be sold to large production plants.

Australian bauxite says it is one of only three listed companies in the world that target clay or water-soluble rare earth element deposits.

Management said the accumulation of rare earths in northern Tasmania was relatively free of radioactive elements uranium and thorium, which meant that simple bulk rare earth concentrates could be produced and sold to existing processing plant operators.