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Significant high-tenor Rare Earth Element (REE) results have been returned from recent soil geochemistry surveys at Impact Minerals Limited’s (ASX:IPT) 100% owned Arkun Project located 150 km east of Perth in the emerging mineral province of southwest Western Australia (Figure 1).
- Rare Earth Element anomalism of up to 5,880 ppm (0.59%) Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO+Y) and Nd+Pr of up to 21% has been returned from soil sampling at the Arkun Project.
- The anomaly covers at least a 3 km2 area at greater than 1,000ppm TREO and is open along strike to the northwest and southeast.
- The soil anomaly is developed in weathered granite and is a prime target for a large clay-hosted REE deposit. The granite covers a further area of about 170 km2 which has yet to be explored.
- Another new prospect, Swordfish, and the previously identified Horseshoe prospect attest to the significant prospectivity for REE mineralisation across the Arkun project.
- Early drilling and bulk sampling for metallurgical test work is planned for the next two Quarters.
Very significant assays of up to 5,880 parts per million (ppm) Total Rare Earth Element Oxides and Yttrium (TREO +Y) have been returned from the newly identified Hyperion prospect in the northwestern part of the project area (Figure 2). These are some of the highest TREO-in-soil results reported recently in Western Australia. A further anomaly with up to 1,783 ppm TREO+Y has also been identified at Swordfish. 10 km southeast of Hyperion (Figure 2).
These new anomalies add to the previously reported significant and large, 10 km long REE anomaly at the Horseshoe Prospect located 25 km east of Hyperion (Figure 2) and emphasise the significant exploration potential for REE at the Arkun project (ASX Release 1st June 2023).
Impact Minerals’ Managing Director, Dr Mike Jones, said, “The discovery of the Hyperion Prospect is a significant breakthrough in exploring the Arkun Project, which has so far focused on nickel, platinum, and copper. Impact's exploration strategy recognises that the Corrigin Tectonic Zone has potential for various commodities, including Rare Earth Elements (REEs), and the Hyperion Prospect could host a large REE deposit in the clays developed in weathered granite. However, the key to an economic discovery is to evaluate how easily the REEs can be extracted through simple acid leaching. For this purpose, initial drill testing and bulk sampling for metallurgical test work will be conducted in the upcoming field season. The extraction characteristics will help guide resource definition drilling later in the year”.
Figure 1. Location and regional geological setting of Impact’s Arkun and other projects in the emerging mineral province of southwest Western Australia. Significant nickel deposits are shown in orange, lithium deposits in green and gold deposits in yellow.
Figure 2. Location and interpreted bedrock geology of the Hyperion, Swordfish and Horseshoe Rare Earth Prospects within the Arkun Project. Soil geochemistry surveys are shown in orange and red.
Hyperion Prospect
The soil geochemistry results have defined an area of more than 3 km2 at greater than 1,000 ppm TREO+Y at Hyperion (Figure 3). Five samples returned greater than 2,500 ppm TREO+Y with a peak value of 5,880 ppm (0.58%) TREO+Y, amongst some of the highest tenor REE soil values reported in Western Australia. A selection of assays containing more than 1,000 ppm TREO is given in Appendix 1.
Within the anomaly, two broad northwest-southeast trending zones of more than 1,500 ppm TREO+Y-in- soils extend for 2.5 km along-trend and are open in both directions (Figure 3).
The anomaly has an average neodymium plus Praesedynium percentage of about 20%, typical of most regolith-hosted mineralisation in the region with Heavy REE contents of between 54 ppm and 200 ppm within the >1,000 ppm parts of the anomaly (Appendix 1). This is encouraging for discovering the more economically compelling Heavy Rare Earths close to the surface.
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This article includes content from Impact 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.
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Navigating Uncertainty: How Trump's Tariffs Are Affecting the Gold Market
Read on to learn how tariffs have affected the gold market and price so far.
How have tariffs affected the gold price?
The gold price has been on the rise since the beginning of the year. After briefly touching the US$3,500 per ounce level in May, it has pulled back and was trading just under US$3,400 as of Tuesday (August 26).
Gold price, January 1 to August 26, 2025.
Chart via TradingEconomics.
Although some of its increase is attributable to the points mentioned above, a significant portion is owed to a lack of information surrounding US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
Initially there was no clarity on what or who was being tariffed, or when the levies would ultimately be implemented, and investors started to move into gold for greater stability and portfolio diversification.
Uncertainty about whether gold would be tariffed also had an effect, prompting traders in the US to import physical gold; this created a price differential between New York futures and the London spot price.
Concerns dissipated as the Trump administration began to nail down tariffs, but were reignited once again when US Customs and Border Patrol posted a ruling on July 31 indicating that the 39 percent tariffs against imports from Switzerland would include 1 kilogram and 100 ounce gold bars.
The news caused spot gold to spike more than 3 percent, from US$3,290 to US$3,398, and sent December futures to an all-time high of US$3,549. Meanwhile, traders halted imports of Swiss bars.
After several days of turmoil, Trump said the ruling was incorrect, and the bars would not be included in the tariff measures being applied to other Swiss imports; the gold price then retreated.
How would gold tariffs have impacted the market?
Gold functions as both a commodity and an essential part of the world’s financial system.
One kilogram and 100 ounce gold bars are used to back futures trading, and regular shipments of the metal are needed to settle contracts once they come due. A 39 percent tariff on gold from Switzerland would have been particularly disruptive, as Swiss refineries account for approximately 70 percent of the world’s gold.
According to the UN Comtrade database, in 2024, Switzerland exported more than 1,400 metric tons of unwrought gold worth more than US$106 billion, representing nearly 30 percent of the country’s total exports. Tariffs would have forced US buyers to pay a significant premium for the precious metal versus buyers in London or Shanghai.
Because gold is often used as a store of value in times of uncertainty, any kind of disruption could have had broader implications for investors looking to add stability to their portfolios.
In an email to the Investing News Network (INN), Lauren Saidel-Baker, CFA, an economist with ITR Economics, explained that gold stands out as a unique investment mechanism:
“There are psychological nuances to gold, which is commonly viewed as a safe store of value during uncertain times and an inflation hedge. Overall, the tariff would have added another facet to the already elevated policy uncertainty."
If the tariffs had remained in place, the US gold price would have had to rise to around US$4,700 per ounce to cover levies, while international prices would have remained closer to the US$3,500 mark.
“Tariffs have already complicated supply chains across industries, and this gold tariff would have been another example of added cost and complexity — but in this case, one with the potential to more directly impact investment activities,” Saidel-Baker went on to explain, emphasizing that US investors would have felt the pinch.
Could gold tariffs happen in the future?
Given Trump's unpredictability, especially when it comes to tariffs, it's possible that gold levies could enter the conversation again. However, by and large experts agree that the matter is closed.
“I think it’s pretty clear at this point that there’s no intention to put tariffs on physical gold imports, and I think that would be very damaging and destructive if they did,” Stefan Gleason, CEO of Money Metals, told INN.
Keith Weiner, founder and CEO of Monetary Metals, offered another perspective, saying that although the gold tariff threat is over, the tumult could have long-term effects on the market.
"Once you've put the scare into everybody, you can't just say, 'Oh, sorry, just kidding.' You can't really do that. And so now we've done damage, and we'll see what happens to that spread over time. We'll see how users of the futures market adapt. There are other markets in the world that would be competing for," he explained.
"This hedging business, you know, maybe it moves to Singapore, maybe it moves to Dubai, maybe it moves to London, and the US loses not only a little more trust, but also a little bit of volume on what had been the biggest — or what is currently the biggest — futures market," Weiner added to INN.
Market participants will be watching closely for future impacts on the yellow metal.
Don't forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.