Altona Rare Earth issues Monte Muambe operational update
Published by Isabelle Keltie,
Editorial Assistant
Global Mining Review,
Altona, a resource exploration and development company focused on Rare Earths in Africa, is pleased to provide an operational update on its Mozambique rare earths project, Monte Muambe, which includes an initial Pre-Feasibility Study in-fill drilling activities.
The Monte Muambe camp was re-opened on 3 July 2023 by the operations team under the direction of Project Manager, Luis Veloso Francisco. Drilling will resume on or around 15 July and will be carried out by Spartan Drilling Services Limitada, which has been engaged for the third consecutive season.
Drilling will initially focus on:
- In-fill and down-dip drilling at Target 4, which is one of the two orebodies being included in the maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
- Exploration drilling at Target 3, which was discovered by Altona in 2021, but has not yet been explored, and has the potential to increase the project's resource base for high-grade ore.
As referenced in the RNS of 22 June 2023, a number of laboratory assay results from the 2022 drilling campaign have been returned to the Company from Intertek's facility in Australia and are being integrated into the database for the ongoing MRE work. The Board is pleased to report that these results continue to be consistent with the Company's own preliminary findings, which were analysed in-situ by pXRF and used in the preparation of the JORC Exploration Target published in the RNS of 08 August 2022.
The Exploration Target included high-grade zones totalling 6.5 million t at 2.47% TREO to 11.5 million t at 2.41% TREO. After its publication, the remainder of the 2022 drilling campaign was focused on on-strike and down-dip extensions of Target 1's high-grade zone to build the database presently being used in the preparation of the MRE.
Cedric Simonet, CEO of Altona, commented, "We have a very busy second half of 2023 ahead of us, with a number of objectives to achieve; the MRE and Scoping Study being our immediate focus. Considerable attention will be given to the metallurgy of Monte Muambe, a key parameter for carbonatite hosted REE projects. The 2023 drilling campaign will specifically aim at expanding the high-grade orebodies in order to increase the resource base. Altona's strategy is to focus its exploration on high-grade ore to fast-track the project towards production and help meet the ever-increasing gap between magnet metals supply and demand."
Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/06072023/altona-rare-earth-issues-monte-muambe-operational-update/
You might also like
Byrnecut donates mining truck to South Metropolitan TAFE
Byrnecut has donated a diesel-electric underground mining truck to South Metropolitan TAFE in Western Australia, to help train students.