AMN - TANZANIA: Revised estimate for Ngualla rare earth project

Peak Resources has a revised Mineral Resource estimate for the Ngualla rare earth project in Tanzania. The new estimate incorporates information from additional drilling completed in 2015 and is reported in accordance with the JORC 2012 Code and Guidelines.

The Bastnaesite Zone weathered mineralisation is the high grade, near surface central portion of the greater Ngualla Mineral Resource that is amenable to lower cost processing and targeted for production in the initial 30+ years of the operation and beyond.

Peak managing director Darren Townsend says: “This high quality mineral resource and its favourable mineralogy is a fundamental starting point and provides Ngualla with unique processing advantages and drives the project’s low capital and operating costs. We look forward to bringing together the series of improvements Peak has made to the project since the Prefeasibility Study of March 2014 in the project update scheduled for release during the first half of this year.”

The new Mineral Resource estimate incorporates the 2365 metres of additional infill reverse circulation (RC) and 623 metres of diamond drilling completed in the resource area during 2015.

The 2015 drilling was completed to infill two areas of high grade, near surface rare earth mineralisation previously defined by relatively wide spaced drilling, provide additional core samples for metallurgical testwork and to complete two trial grade control test patterns.

The Ngualla rare earth deposit contains several styles of mineralisation in terms of rare earth and host rock mineralogy. The large size of the deposit allows Peak to select only the most favourable style of mineralisation for development during the first decades of the project's life.

The weathered Bastnaesite zone mineralisation allows for a less complex metallurgical process and drives Ngualla’s lower capital and operating costs compared to other rare earth development projects.

Located at the geological core of the Ngualla carbonatite, the weathered Bastnaesite mineralisation consists of highly weathered ferruginous bedrock, gravel and ferricrete. Rare earths are contained within the fluorocarbonate mineral bastnaesite within an iron oxide rich host rock with barite and quartz. The weathered Bastnaesite zone mineralisation is also defined as containing less than 10% calcium and very low phosphorous of less than 0.3%.

The Mineral Resource estimate for the weathered Bastnaesite zone rare earth mineralisation at a 3% REO lower grade cut is 19.9 million tonnes at 4.90% REO.

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