Vital Metals grows Nechalacho tonnage by 56%

Vital Metals (ASX: VML; US-OTC: VTMXF) says resource definition drilling has boosted its confidence in the early-stage Nechalacho rare earths project, one of the world’s largest.

The company reported a 56% increase in tonnes in the Tardiff deposit’s measured and indicated category and a 2% overall gain in contained neodymium and praseodymium oxides (NdPr), at the site in the Northwest Territories.

The updated resource will support a scoping study that the company expects to complete within the coming weeks.

Neodymium and praseodymium power the strongest types of rare earth magnets used in electric vehicles and other decarbonization technologies.

Nechalacho’s Tardiff Upper Zone deposit now hosts 48.6 million measured and indicated tonnes, according to Australia’s Joint Ore Reserves Committee mining code. The zone grades 0.26% neodymium oxide (Nd2O3), 0.07% praseodymium (III/IV) oxide (Pr6O11) and 0.25% niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5), or 1.32% total rare earth oxide (TREO), for 640,000 tonnes of contained TREO.

Inferred resources stand at 144.1 million tonnes grading 0.26% (Nd2O3), 0.07% (Pr6O11) and 0.32% (Nb205), or 1.31% TREO, for 1.88 million tonnes of TREO.

74 new holes

The pit-constrained resource estimate used a 0.7% TREO cut-off grade instead of a metal equivalent value used in an earlier resource estimate reported last April. The latest resource was based on 6,634 metres (74 holes) of additional drilling in 2023.

“While our overall totals of contained TREO and NdPr have only slightly increased on the April 2024 historical mineral resource estimate, based on the drilling we completed in 2023, we now have more confidence that this is a truer representation of what this deposit holds,” Lisa Riley, the company’s managing director and CEO, said in a release.

Some of the measured and indicated resources at Tardiff are located below small lakes. The lakes are shallow, freeze in winter and host no fish, according to the company.

Under lakes

In terms of the inferred resource, a significant portion is found below Thor and Long Lakes, which are less than 5 metres deep, but contain significant volumes of water. Dewatering the larger lakes may be possible with pumps and drainage option, but detailed studies are required, Vital said in a release. Other possibilities include underground extraction.

In December, the company staked more than 25 sq. km of ground immediately north of Nechalacho, expanding its footprint to 75 sq. kilometres.

Nechalacho,110 km southeast of Yellowknife, is one of the largest hard rock rare earth projects in the world. It was discovered more than 50 years ago.

In Australia, the junior’s shares closed at A2¢ apiece, down A1¢ or a third on the day.