Rare earths junior Vital Metals (ASX:VML) reported a 56 percent increase in measured and indicated tonnes in an updated resource estimate for its Tardiff deposit on Monday (January 20).
Tardiff is located at the Nechalacho project, and the new resource builds on figures from an April 2024 resource estimate. At the time, Tardiff was estimated to hold 623,000 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium oxide (NdPr).
Tardiff’s total resource tonnage now stands at 192.7 million tonnes at 1.3 percent total rare earth oxide (TREO) and 0.3 percent niobium pentoxide, containing 2.52 million tonnes TREO; that includes 636,000 tonnes of NdPr.
“While our overall totals of contained TREO and NdPr have only slightly increased on the April 2024 historical MRE, based on the drilling we completed in 2023, we now have more confidence that this is a truer representation of what this deposit holds,” commented Vital Managing Director and CEO Lisa Riley in a press release.
The update incorporates data from 2023 drill campaigns and 2024 metallurgical test results.
Explaining the importance of neodymium and praseodymium, Vital said they have magnetic properties and are in demand due to their applications in technologies such as high-strength magnets and aircraft engines.
Located 100 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Nechalacho is in the early stages of appraisal. Studies are required to assess its environment and social governance issues.
According to Vital, Tardiff is one of the highest-grade rare earth deposits in the world. The company also notes that it is “the only rare earth project capable of beneficiation solely by ore sorting.”
The updated resource estimate for Tardiff will be used by the company as a reference to examine the size and scalability of future production scenarios via a scoping study.
Vital said this study is expected in the coming weeks.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle de la Cruz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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