Vital Receives Final Drill Results from Tardiff Including 1.8m at 8% TREO from 6.7m

Vital Metals Limited (ASX: VML) (“Vital”, “Vital Metals” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce high-grade results from the final 24 drill holes from its 2023 resource definition drilling program on the Tardiff deposit at its Nechalacho Rare Earth Project in NWT, Canada.

Highlights

• Tardiff drilling results from final 24 drill holes completed in 2023 resource definition drilling program (74 holes totaling 6,664m) continues to return shallow high grades;
• Results from resource conversion program at Tardiff; best results include:
  • L23-639: 53.5m at 1.5% TREO from 6.7m incl. 1.8m at 8% TREO within 15.8m at 2.6% TREO
  • L23-652: 27.45m at 1.5% TREO from 4.55m incl. 2m at 6.3% TREO
  • L23-638: 12.52m at 2.3% TREO from 22.48m incl. 1.65m at 5.3% TREO
  • L23-643: 24.7m at 1.5% TREO from 20.25 incl. 1.35m at 4.9% TREO
  • L23-664: 55.0m at 1.6% TREO from 20.5m incl. 1.38m at 4.6% TREO
  • L23-644: 24.18m at 1.94% TREO from 18.85m incl. 2m at 3.7% TREO
  • L23-633: 22.83m at 2.0% TREO from 27.95m incl. 1.87m at 3.3 % TREO
  • L23-628: 14m at 1.7% TREO from 75m incl. 1m at 3.4% TREO
  • L23-660: 47.07m at 2.1% TREO from 9.12m incl. 8.8m at 3% TREO within 22.24m at 2.4% TREO
  • L23-633: 22.83m at 2.0% TREO from 27.95m incl. 1.87m at 3.3% TREO within 10.3m at 2.5% TREO
• Mineralisation remains open to the west, northwest and on the southern margins –
• results confirm potential for shallow, higher-grade resource expansion
• Drilling focused on increasing confidence of the Tardiff Zones 1 and 3 resource definition and grade by narrowing drilling spacing for resource conversion
• Vital will use full results from 2023 program to update a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Tardiff which currently stands at 213Mt at 1.17% TREO
• Vital is focused on developing the large-scale Tardiff deposit, one of the largest single rare earths deposits in the western world, estimated to contain 623,000 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) ¹
• NdPr offers the largest value market within the lanthanide series of rare earths and provide essential components in the production of high strength magnets.

Vital VP Exploration Dr. Pietrzak-Renaud said: “We are thrilled with these very encouraging assays which round out our results from 2023. Across the board, our results point to areas within Tardiff of more continuous higher-grade mineralisation that we can target in future expansion drilling. The potential expansion of shallow higher grade is exciting as it underscores the large tonnage potential of this world class REE deposit.

“We are pleased to close out the 2023 drill program and focus on the interpretation of the data. Preliminary relogging of drill core points to alteration controlling or significantly influencing mineralisation. We anticipate busy months ahead as we commence new metallurgical testwork shortly, and bring together the geological data; working toward completing our scoping study.”

Summary of Latest Results

Outcomes from this final parcel of results for 24 drillholes (Figure 2) highlight the potential expansion of shallow higher grade mineralization. Results of the 2023 drill program will aid in the interpretation of the geological model as it pertains to mineralization controls, and could aid in further conversion and refining of Inferred resources in future resource estimate updates on the Tardiff deposit.

Vital’s 2023 resource definition drilling program was drilled on a nominal 50m by 50m grid to infill areas previously drilled on nominal 100m to 200m drill spacing. Drilling targeted mineralization above the 150m RL. Vital aims to deliver a scoping study on the Tardiff deposit in the coming months. Further updates on Tardiff resource are planned related to field work and scoping study activities.

Figure 1: Plan view of the 2023 Tardiff drill program. Traces include the 2021 and 2022 drill programs.

Figure 2: Projected drill strings highlighting (in colour) down-hole assays of the 24 drillholes released in this parcel of results from the 2023 drill program. All holes interpreted to intersect the Tardiff Upper Mineralized Zone within the Blachford Lake Complex. View is looking to the northeast. Assay results: Grey 0-1% TREO, blue 1-2% TREO, Orange 2-3% TREO and Fuchsia 3-9% TREO.

Results from this new data highlights shallow higher grades on the western extent of the 2023 drilling (hosting most of the discrete assays above 8% TREO in this parcel of data), which remains open for subsequent expansion. Shallow, higher-grade mineralization is hosted within predominantly strongly altered rock with varying degrees of magnetite, biotite and chlorite alteration and other secondary minerals replacing the majority of the primary mineralogy (i.e. secondary potassium feldspar).

Click here for the full ASX Release

This article includes content from Vital Metals, 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.