Virgin Rare Earth Discovery at Salambidwe, Malawi
Highlights
- Reconnaissance rock chip and soil sampling at Salambidwe returns very positive REO values
- Rock chip results include:
- L4050: 2.05%TREO inc. 214ppm Dy2O3
- L4053: 0.43% TREO, 7,924ppm Nb2O5, 153ppm Ta2O5 and 2.75% ZrO2
- Enrichment in the high value heavy rare earth element dysprosium and the high-value light rare earth element neodymium
- First ever reported rare earth and specialty metal mineralisation from Salambidwe
- Substantial 2011 rare earth and specialty metal exploration program planned
- Rare earth prices continue to rise astronomically, with dysprosium oxide spot prices now approximately $700 USD/kg, an ~800% rise over the last 3 years
- Recently completed A$48m placement to fund exploration
Globe Metals & Mining (“Globe” or “the Company”; ASX: GBE) is pleased to announce analytical results from a limited reconnaissance sampling program undertaken over two days in late 2010 at Mount Salambidwe in southern Malawi. This program included 4 rock chip samples and 41 soil samples taken in the central western area of the alkaline ring complex targeting mainly the central agglomeratic rocks.
The soil samples show high values of rare earths, between 1,000 and 2,000ppm TREO with weak niobium and tantalum and stronger zircon anomalism of between 3,000 and 9,000ppm. Anomalism correlates generally well with the historical mapping of agglomerate units.
The individual rock chip samples were limited, importantly however, 2 of the 4 samples taken show strong REO and/or niobium, tantalum and zircon mineralisation. Sample L4050 contains 2.05% TREO whilst sample L4053 has a high niobium value of 7,924ppm Nb2O5 with anomalous tantalum and over 2.75% ZrO2. A full list of the rock-chip results is presented in Table 1 of the ASX announcement.
Michael Schultz, Regional Exploration Manager for Africa said, “This reconnaissance program was by design, very limited, however, extremely successful in that it returned results that encourage further work. The sampling has demonstrated for the first time the occurrence of potentially economic grades of both rare earth and specialty metal mineralisation. We are now planning an aggressive exploration program - to address the potential for significant rare earth and specialty metal deposits.”
Work is to include the reprocessing of recently acquired airborne geophysics, ground based radiometric surveys, detailed geological mapping, and a focussed rock chipping and soil sampling program.
"Fortunately for Globe, the access to this area has already been established, so we are unlikely to encounter the logistical delays experienced at other remote projects. Initiation of exploration and delivery of results will be swift at Salambidwe."
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