Narryer Metals is looking to enter Western Australia’s rare earth element pedigree, having unearthed evidence that its Rocky Gully Project could be home to an extensive high-value carbonatite complex.

The initial focus at Rocky Gully was on potential REE in regolith clays discovered in historic drilling at the Ivar Prospect, but the Company now believes a much bigger prize is on hand.

Geological analysis identified carbonatite intrusive rocks from historical drilling samples which also showed anomalous REE grades up to 0.5% TREO, magnetite, sulphur and potassium in walk rock alteration, with geophysics modelling identifying a pipe-like body with a related alteration.

The Company is following up on this discovery with gravity and ground magnetic surveys kicking off in the near future. Furthermore, a drilling campaign is planned for the end of Q2 2023 which will target below the known carbonatite dyke to determine if a larger carbonatite system exists at depth.

The goal of the Company’s exploration strategy is to determine the style of REE mineralisation, among other minerals, as either magmatic or hydrothermal in nature, with geological and geochemical assessment also taking place to assess potential fenitisation-type alteration haloes.

Carbonatite complexes have shown a high amount of exploration success for REEs, especially in Western Australia, with the state being home to both the 55 Mt @ 5.3 % TREO Mt Weld Mine in the Eastern Goldfields region and the 29.9 Mt @ 0.93% TREO Yangibarra REE Project in the Gascoyne region.

Narryer believes the current demand for critical minerals has iincreased the significance of earlier findings at the projects.

“Carbonatites are high-value projects, with a higher exploration success rate in REE, Nb and other commodities. This is evident in the carbonatite exploration being carried out in the Gascoyne and with the recent discovery in the Arunta region by WA1 Resources. Narryer has developed an exploration model and intends to test it with drilling, as well as initiating ground geophysics to define more targets to drill in the coming months,” Managing Director Dr Gavin England said.