OD6 Metals will use new State Government funding to drill further into its Splinter Rock rare earths project north-east of the port of Esperance in Western Australia.
The company says it has earmarked its maximum $180,000 grant under the government’s exploration incentive scheme (EIS) for drilling at its prospective Tighthead and Loosehead targets in a bid to continue its string of heavy clay-hosted rare earths hits at the project.
The two adjacent targets were identified through OD6’s collaboration and research partnership with the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation). They form a northern extension of the company’s flagship Splinter Rock operation and have a combined area of about 135 square kilometres.
The prospects are part of an almost continuous 40km-long strike extent of the Splinter Rock rare earths mineralised system of mostly shallow-buried, clay-filled channels, scours and depressions.
In July last year, OD6 revealed its maiden mineral resource estimate for Splinter Rock as 344 million tonnes at a grade of 1308 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO).
With less than 5 per cent of the targeted clay basin area included in the estimate and on-going exploration expected to further expand the known mineralisation, the maiden resource figure includes 149 million tonnes at 1423ppm TREO with 23 per cent of the more valuable magnet rare earth oxides (MREO) at the standout Centre prospect in near-surface, clay-hosted mineralisation up to 70m thick.
We recognise the Western Australian Government’s support for the exploration industry and in particular the efforts of the many exploration and development companies also awarded a grant that are focussed on the emerging critical minerals industry. The critical minerals industry, which includes OD6’s focus on rare earths, is at an important incubation stage with the support of State and Federal Governments being essential to make Australia a driving force in the future provision of these minerals to the world.
The EIS initiative was established to encourage exploration in the State and to help sustain its resources sector. The program began in April 2009 and in July 2019 it was funded on an ongoing basis with $10 million a year using funds raised through mineral tenement rents.
That allocation was increased to $12.5 million per year in 2021.
The principal objective of the scheme is to stimulate increased private sector resource exploration in the hope it might lead to new mineral and energy discoveries, increase knowledge of WA’s geology and resources and help increase employment opportunities. Most of the EIS-supported activities tend to be taking place in previously virgin or underexplored greenfields regions.
It comes at a time when the availability of new, relatively cheap and easily portable technologies – such as passive seismic and various drone scanning applications to enable rapid scanning of large tracts of terrain – means that sophisticated exploration is not restricted to bigger companies with deep pockets.
The EIS scheme is a competitive program that is open for applications twice a year and offers up to a 50 per cent refund for innovative exploration drilling projects. It is capped at $180,000 for a multi-hole application.
It will now be interesting to see what OD6’s new EIS drillholes will reveal.
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