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Axel REE Limited (ASX: AXL, “Axel” or “the Company”) is pleased to advise the commencement of a robust drilling program at its 100% owned and highly prospective, but yet underexplored Caladão Project (Caladão). Caladão is located in a region known as the Lithium Valley in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where many major lithium discoveries have been made, including Sigma Lithium Corp’s Grota do Cirilo LCE mine. Axel is the first company to realise the area's potential for high-grade REE mineralisation in the well-known mining region and with excellent access to infrastructure.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Phase 1 exploration program to commence at the Caladão REE Project as part of the 20,000m drill campaign planned over the next 2 years
- Aggressive diamond drilling aims to extend the open REE mineralisation at two prospects (Area A and Area B) that previously uncovered 25km of mineralised strike, including a large radiometric circular structure at Area B
- Phase 1 program will also test the depth of the clay profile with diamond drilling the most effective method to drill to bedrock. Previous auger drilling (to average 15m depth) indicated REE mineralisation is open at depth
- This first program will include 52 holes and is anticipated to total ~2,600 metres of diamond drilling
- Phase 1 program at Caladão opens Axel’s aggressive IPO exploration strategy, with Caldas (Poços de Caldas REE) and Itiquira (Mato Grosso REE/Nb) Phase 1 campaigns to follow in the coming weeks
Axel holds ~400km² in exploration permits and applications at Caladão, which is one of four prospective rare earth elements (REE) and niobium (Nb) projects 100% owned by the Company that covers over 1,100km².
Managing Director, Dr Fernando Tallarico, said:
“Having successfully completed Axel’s IPO, we are now in the position to immediately embark on our strategy to unlock value in our highly prospective Caladão Project, in the Lithium Valley, by launching our Phase 1 2,600m diamond drilling program. This program holds immense potential as the historical auger results defined two target areas that spanned a combined strike length of 25km with mineralisation open at depth, laterally, and along the strike.
Diamond drilling will cross the entire regolith profile, and only cease once the bedrock is reached. This approach will enable us to comprehensively examine the entire clay profile, map the zoning of the clay horizons, and determine the true thickness of the potentially REE-bearing clay zone. We are also targeting a large circular radiometric structure at Area B and have planned our program to be fluid where we will follow the richest areas as results progressively return.
This Phase 1 program forms part of our 20,000m program planned at Caladão and aligns with our IPO strategy to aggressively work our projects. Our Caldas Project in the world-class Poços de Caldas Alkaline Complex and Itiquira REE/niobium project will progressively follow and we are excited for the continuous newsflow to come.”
Figure 1 – Map of the Axel REE’s 100% owned projects in Brazil.
Previous geochemical and shallow auger drilling programs completed by the Company in 2023 that covered only ~20% of the Project, determined two highly prospective targets (Area A and Area B), with elevated soil samples up to 3,547 ppm TREO and auger drill intercepts up to 2 metres @ 7,612 ppm TREO, with the thickest intercept including 18 metres @ 2,678 ppm TREO. All mineralised auger holes ended in mineralisation denoting that the true thickness of the REE mineralisation is yet to be determined. The prospective area is large-scale, covering more than 400km2 with Area A and Area B both open in all directions (along-strike and laterally).
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This article includes content from Axel REE, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
AXL:AU
Spodumene Pegmatite Discovery at Esperança Project in Brazil Yields LIBS Results up to 4.04% Li2O
The discovery has been made during early-stage exploration programs which include project scale geological mapping, ground reconnaissance, and soil sampling. These early-stage programs remain ongoing with further results to come over the coming weeks. The discovery supports the Company’s exploration thesis and uplifts the remaining prospectivity across all three project areas: Canabrava, Caraíbas and Esperança projects.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Artisanal excavations reveal a lithium bearing pegmatite with elongate crystalline spodumene crystals up to 50cm in length
- LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) results of spodumene crystals return up to 18,800 ppm Lithium, or 4.04% Li2O
- Discovery provides walk up drill target for fully funded drilling campaign to begin Q1 2025
- Soil sampling and geological mapping continues across the Esperança, Canabrava and Caraíbas projects with further results due over the coming weeks
Lightning Minerals Managing Director Alex Biggs said, “I am highly encouraged by these results from Brazil. As I have spoken about, as a team we are committed to discovery and completing our works in a diligent and structured manner, the proof of which is in these results. The Company is progressing its projects in Brazil quickly and cost effectively and generating significant results for the business which we feel will be transformational. I am proud of and congratulate our geology teams both in Australia and Brazil who have conducted themselves in a professional and astute manner which has been crucial in making a discovery such as this. This is a great first step for us in Brazil and is testament to the prospectivity of the region as I have discussed previously. We look forward to drilling in Q1 2025 and further results to come imminently from all three project areas in Brazil. I would also like to thank our shareholders who have supported our vision and exploration strategy. As a Company we are firmly committed to the lithium thematic and firmly committed to Brazil where we see significant potential moving forwards”.
Lithium Discovery at Esperança Project
During geological mapping fieldwork conducted in mid-November 2024 field geologists encountered a previously unknown historical artisanal mine within the Esperança project area. The site presented with a small access which opened into a set of sub vertical shafts sunk several meters into schists of the Salinas formation. Upon investigation the geology team has discovered pegmatitic lithologies in the walls of the excavations, of which the suite of minerals indicates inclusion of macro crystalline (up to 50cm) elongate crystals of spodumene as shown in Figure 1(a) and Figure 1(b).
Figure 1a (left): Brazilian geologist Vitor Araujo Alves showing the spodumene rich portion of the zoned pegmatite discovered at the Esperança Property. Figure 1b (right): Large elongate spodumene crystals (Spd) up to 50cm in length showing homogeneous growth patterns amongst a quartz (Qtz) and Feldspar (Fdsp) rich matrix
The Company’s geologists have collected selective mineral specimen grab samples in sample VLM207 (Figure 2). Six separate minerals have been analysed via a SciAps Z-903 hand-held LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) device which has returned lithium endowment of up to 18,800 ppm lithium, which equates to a lithium oxide percentage of 4.04% Li2O.
The SciAps Z-903 handheld LIBS device is considered a qualitative analysis technique only and is used as an in-field preliminary check to establish if a mineral is lithium-bearing. Certified laboratory assays are required to provide accurate, quantitative analysis. A table of the six SciAps Z-903 handheld LIBS results testing the spodumene crystals is shown in Table 1. A full table of results are presented in Appendix 2, Table 2.
While the current field observations indicate that the mineral identified is a lithium-bearing mineral, the percentage of lithium produced from the LIBS analyser does not correlate to an accurate quantitative measurement of the lithium concentration of the mineral itself, or to the overall grade of the pegmatite.
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This article includes content from Lightning Minerals, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
