Victory Metals Limited (ASX:VTM) (“Victory” or “the Company”) is pleased to report the latest assay results from the Air Core (AC) and Reverse Circulation (RC) drill programs at the Company’s North Stanmore REE project located approximately 10km north from the town of Cue, Western Australia and bordered to the east by the Great Northern Highway.

Highlights

• Initial Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling assays confirm grades of up to 1.08% (10,829ppm) Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) with 59% Valuable Heavy Rare Earth Oxide (HREO) ratio
• Significant levels of Kaolinite (a common clay mineral in ionic clay hosted REE deposits) confirmed by X-ray diffraction
• Over 3000m RC Drilling now completed for the preparation of a REE JORC (2012) mineral resource estimate
• Assays continue to confirm very valuable Heavy Rare Earth Elements ratio of 36% HREO/TREO and critical magnet metals NdPr + DyTb ratio of 23.4% of total REE’s
• Mineralisation continues to be open in all directions
• Average grade from assays is 1023ppm TREO with HREYO/TREYO ratio of 36%, from an impressive data set of 489 samples collected at 1 metre intervals across 135 holes (cut-off greater than 500ppm TREO)
• Notable intersections from North Stanmore including latest assays results:
  • 32m at 1047ppm TREO from 36m (NSTAC004) including,
    
    • 12m at 2038ppm TREO, and
    • 8m at 2467ppm TREO from 48m
  • 16m at 2155ppm TREO from 21m (NSTAC032) including,
    • 6m at 4683ppm TREO, and
    • 2m at 9681ppm TREO
  • 12m at 1316ppm TREO from 24m (MAFAC019)
  • 10m at 1012ppm TREO from 29m (NSTAC028)
  • 10m at 1658ppm TREO from 32m (NSTRC071) including,
    • 1m at 1.08%TREO from 39m
  • 9m at 1151ppm TREO from 21m (NSTAC098)
  • 7m at 1381ppm TREO from 49m (NSE012)
  • 5m at 2050ppm TREO from 51m (NSTAC131)
  • 2m at 3976ppm TREO from 52m(NSE013) including 1m at 5239ppm
• Extensive continuation of high grade and valuable Scandium (Sc2O3) up to 145ppm (NSTAC308) and 6m at 71ppm from 17m (NSTAC024)
  
• Anomalous REE assays (at 500ppm cut-off) continue to confirm very low contents of radioactive elements Th 8ppm and U 2.6ppm. These values are essentially identical to average upper continental crust (Th 10.7ppm and U 2.8ppm) and indicate no actinide anomalism in the North Stanmore regolith.

The further assays received from the AC program confirmed a significant average Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) grade of 1023ppm from 1m samples with results up to 10,829ppm with a cut-off of 500ppm. The assays confirm a valuable Heavy Rare Earth Elements ratio of 36% HREO/TREO and critical magnet metals NdPr and DyTb contents of 19.3% and 4.1% of total REE’s.

The Company has now received approximately 58% of the assays from both AC drilling programs with the remaining assays from the AC, RC and the diamond drilling program at the Company’s North Stanmore Alkaline Intrusion expected to be reported in batches through Q1 2023.

Victory’s Executive Director Brendan Clark commented:“These are significant results within clay REE style deposits, and we are pleased that Victory’s rare earth discovery in Western Australia continues to prove itself”.

“Today’s highlighted TREO assay result is comparable with hard rock deposit grades and provides further evidence that the North Stanmore regolith hosts a high-grade ionic clay rare earth system.”

“It is a strategic approach to conduct ammonium sulphate leachate analyses with Intertek as this will provide early data that will assist the metallurgical process overall. Metallurgy is about finding the right blend of material to process as well as optimising the chemistry of the leach reagent”.

“It is Victory’s early understanding that the regolith with Ce/Ce* <1 that is Heavy Rare Earth enriched potentially could be extracted with less difficulty than the Light Rare Enriched part of the system with Ce/Ce* >1, producing a Ce dominated Light Rare Earth Element suite that except for NdPr is not particularly valuble”.

“These results continue Victory’s exploration success, and our next steps include the continuation of the metallurgical test work, the preparation of the JORC mineral resource estimate and further exploration as the North Stanmore REE discovery remains open in all directions”.

North Stanmore E20/871, E20/1016, P20/2469, P20/2468 and M20/544

Victory has continued to progress with its exploration activities through harsh climatic conditions on time and within budget. Victory has completed a combined AC/RC drilling program of approximately 20,000m at the North Stanmore project (figure 1). Fusion ICPMS assays continue to demonstrate REE mineralisation (>500ppm total REYO) present in the majority of the drill holes with very significant contents of the valuable heavy rare earths (DyTb) as well as Scandium.

Assays from the latest RC and AC drilling program continue to be reported. All results are expected to be reported by the end of Q1 2023 which will continue to benefit the mineral resource (JORC) work by RSC Mineral Exploration in West Perth.

Anomalous Y >100ppm (a vector for HREEs) and La and Nd (vectors for LREEs) recorded by p-XRF analysis now cover an area greater than 45km² across the North Stanmore project.

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