Barkly drills for scale at NT rare earths play

ASX-listed Barkly Rare Earths has pushed past the 1000-metre mark in a 10,000m resource expansion drilling campaign at its flagship namesake project in the Northern Territory, completing 45 holes as it chases shallow growth around its 40-million-tonne (Mt) inferred rare earths resource.

When considering how little drilling underpins the existing resource, the scale of the opportunity becomes apparent. The prospect grades 2100 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) for 82,000 tonnes of contained TREO, yet it was defined from just 46 holes and 755m of testing, representing less than one per cent of Barkly’s 100 per cent-owned, 5030-square-kilometre project.

A total of 400 holes averaging 25m deep have been planned in the current program, with most focused on Barkly’s exploration target area. The rig is now closing in on extensions immediately beside the resource and the first laboratory assays are expected in coming weeks. The balance of results are set to land by the end of the year.

Barkly’s conceptual exploration target spans between 200 million and one billion tonnes at 1600–1900ppm TREO, including 500–700ppm neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr). The company cautions there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a resource across the total target area and it remains uncertain whether further work will result in one.

Previous drilling across the 20km corridor between the areas hosting the existing resource also intersected rare earths, which Barkly says points to potential lateral expansion. The company says mineralisation remains open in all directions.

The campaign initially faced a few challenges after one of the largest locally observed wet seasons left difficult ground conditions and persistent groundwater. Barkly moved the rig into more favourable terrain, where it says the target mineralisation is shallow and interpreted to extend to surface, with drilling rates improving as groundwater conditions eased.

Barkly Rare Earths managing director Craig Wright said: “The steady progress of the phase one drilling programme is testing shallow growth potential around our existing 40Mt inferred mineral resource. Drilling rates are improving and samples are now moving through to the laboratory.”

With momentum building, Barkly is now investigating ways to lift productivity further and says its field schedule retains flexibility for additional drilling beyond 10,000m, subject to Board approval. The current campaign is due to wrap up by December, with a targeted resource update hot on its heels, subject to drilling and laboratory progress.

Rare earths concentration and extraction testwork is also continuing alongside geo-metallurgical testwork and modelling.

Barkly says its geological model rests on potential extensions within mapped, laterally extensive, near-horizontal Cretaceous sandstones.