Alvo Minerals Limited (ASX: ALV)(“Alvo” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the commencement of the maiden drill program at the recently acquired Bluebush REE Project (“Bluebush”), located on the northern half of the Serra Dourada granite, host of the Serra Verde Ionic Clay REE deposit (“Serra Verde”) (see Figure 1). Serra Verde boasts a Mineral Resource1 of 911Mt @ 1,200ppm Total Rare Earth Oxide (“TREO”) and a Mineral reserve of 350Mt @ 1,500ppm TREO, and is believed to be the only Ionic Clay project in construction outside of China.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Maiden auger drill program commences at the recently acquired Bluebush Rare Earth Element (“REE”)
- Project located in Central Brazil, utilising Alvo’s in-house truck mounted auger rig.
- Auger drilling will be focused on testing the depth and lateral extensions of existing mineralisation as well as extensive sampling of the saprolite to confirm ionic clay mineralisation.
- Early-stage exploration work completed by the vendors has confirmed high-grade REEs at shallow levels with values up to 4,500ppm TREO in alluvials and 2,350ppm TREO in saprolite (clay).
- Saprolite results recorded a very high magnet rare earth split averaging 35% (MREO/TREO)
- Historical auger drilling focused on surface alluvials with an average hole of 3.6m
- Alvo truck mounted auger drill rig has capacity up to 30m depth
- Drilling will commence at the Fazendinha, Ferradura and Boa Vista prospects, where previous drilling intercepted REE mineralisation from surface to end of hole (EOH), including:
- 5m @ 1,139ppm TREO (36% MREO) auger ERRO072AGR from 1m to EOH (Fazendinha)
- 13m @ 928ppm TREO (33% MREO) auger ERRO017AGR from 0m to EOH (Ferradura)
- 6m @ 1,188ppm TREO (37% MREO) auger ERRO273AGR from 1m* (Boa Vista 01)
- Alvo will use its auger drilling expertise that has seen 666 auger holes for 6,044m completed at the Palma VMS Project since mid-January 2023. Previous owners drilled a total of 258 auger holes for approximately 930m.
Rob Smakman, Alvo’s Managing Director commented on the Bluebush Project:
“When we listed on the ASX in October 2021 we commenced our maiden diamond-drill program at the Palma VMS Project within three days, now we are commencing our maiden auger drill program at the Bluebush REE Project within a week of the acquisition. We haven’t slowed down since IPO and aren’t planning on it.
“The auger drill program is the first phase of due diligence as we test the depth profile of the REE mineralisation hosted in the saprolite (clay) and send samples to the laboratory to confirm Bluebush is a true ionic clay deposit. We are confident in the likelihood of the results as Serra Verde to the south is on the same granite formation and exhibits similar characteristics of REE mineralisation identified by the previous owners of Bluebush.”
Figure 1 Alvo's auger rig drilling at Bluebush REE Project. Note the piles of samples representing saprolite intercepted in the hole (each pile represents a metre of advance).
The maiden drill program will initially commence at northern prospects Fazendinha and Ferradura (see Figure 2), that intercepted rare earth mineralisation from surface to end of hole (EOH), including2:
- 5m @ 1,139ppm TREO (36% MREO) auger ERRO072AGR from 1m to EOH (Fazendinha)
- 13m @ 928ppm TREO (33% MREO) auger ERRO017AGR from 0m to EOH (Ferradura)
- 6m @ 1,188ppm TREO (37% MREO) auger ERRO273AGR from 1m* (Boa Vista 01)
The owners of Bluebush drilled a total of 258 auger holes for approximately 930m (average 3.6m depth) (see Figure 3). The auger drilling would often stop once the saprolite clay horizon was intercepted as the primary targets were the alluvials (and partly due to restrictions of the handheld equipment) and as such, the routine sampling of these horizons often ended in mineralisation.
Alvo will utilise its in-house auger drilling expertise that has seen it drill 666 auger holes for 6,044m since mid- January 2023 completed at the Palma VMS Project to rapidly progress the Bluebush REE Project.
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Figure 1 Alvo's auger rig drilling at Bluebush REE Project. Note the piles of samples representing saprolite intercepted in the hole (each pile represents a metre of advance).
