Cazaly Resources plans to expand its footprint to Africa with an exploration licence application for a Namibian rare earths project through its 95 per cent owned subsidiary Philco One Hundred and Seventy Three.
The Abenab North project is located in the northern region of Namibia and is in the vicinity of the Tsumeb copper-lead mine where Cazaly says it has identified several mineralised carbonatites in the area from historic drilling that shows the project as prospective for base metals and rare earth elements.
Previous drilling returned solid results with a 45m hit going 0.73 per cent total rare earth oxides, or “TREO” from 55m including a 4m hit a 2.53 per cent TREO from 86m. Another 16.7m intercept recorded 0.66 per cent TREO from 94.6m including 1.2m at 1.89 per cent.
Additional historic drilling results recorded a 39.7m hit at 0.55 per cent TREO including 3.6m going 1.22 per cent TREO. The higher levels of rare earth elements included lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and praseodymium.
The exploration application covers an area of around 790 square kilometres in a region with historic production from several mines including Tsumeb, Kombat, Abenab and the Berg Aukas mines. Cazaly says the Tsumeb mine was renowned for its wealth of rare and unusual minerals when it was mined from 1897 to 1996.
The company says previous work in the area focussed more on the Abenab vanadium mine located to the south with no exploration work completed on the carbonatites within the application area.
In addition to the Abenab North’s rare earths potential, the explorer believes the project is also highly prospective for Tsumeb-style base metal mineralisation. Elevated phosphorous levels have also been recognised in historical results.
Abenab North is close to major towns and mining processing facilities. Cazaly says there is excellent infrastructure in the region that is well served by sealed roads, rail to port, high voltage power, telephone lines and water.
Rare earths are a group of 17 elements which have found applications in emerging and green technologies. Magnetic rare earth oxides include neodymium and praseodymium and are typically used in the clean energy space to produce magnetic products that are vital to products including electric vehicles and wind turbines.
Cazaly is currently compiling and assessing the historical database for the Abenab North project to plan potential exploration programs whilst awaiting the approval of the licence.
Given Cazaly’s first African adventure also represents its first step into the in-vogue rare earths space, should the application prove successful it should be an interesting year ahead for the budding explorer.
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