Summit is now drilling towards a rare earths discovery at Stallion

Drilling is now underway at Summit Minerals’ Stallion project, east of Kalgoorlie, where historical high-grade hits suggest “the essential ingredients for ion-adsorption rare earths mineralisation are present”.

In 2011, a 6500m uranium drill program by previous owner Manhattan Corp (ASX:MHC) targeted a uranium mineralised ‘palaeochannel’ (ancient river bed) over 8km of strike.

Over 1000 samples were sent for analysis, which just happened to return assays up to 2,666ppm (0.26%) in only four of the 17 rare earth elements.

The remaining 13 rare earth elements, including the high demand heavy rare earths, were not assayed.

Sampling was also restricted to higher radioactive intervals at depth, resulting in most holes remaining substantially under-sampled with almost no sampling occurring within the palaeochannel:

This regolith-hosted mineralisation, potentially associated with an ion-adsorption deposit, is the target of Summit Minerals’ (ASX:SUM)  new program.

Drilling towards a discovery at Stallion

The new program has three objectives.

One, to confirm the previously drilled intersections; two, to resample this historic drilling for the full complement of rare earths, and three, to identify shallower REE mineralisation marginal to the channel.

“We are very pleased to be drilling at Stallion, where the essential ingredients for IAD REE mineralisation are present, including an REE-enriched granite and a deeply weathered clay-rich regolith,” SUM managing director Jonathan King says.

“Validation of the historical REE results, complemented by the analysis of the additional 13 oxides, will define the project’s prospectivity and scale and should provide the company with early momentum moving into the New Year.

“We look forward to updating shareholders with the results as they are received in early 2023.”

 Antimony hunting at Windfall

Busy Summit also has put boots on the ground at its Windfall project in New South Wales, with fieldwork aimed at confirming its antimony prospectivity.

Antimony is a silvery, brittle metalloid valued for its anti-corrosion properties which strengthen everything from nuclear energy facilities to batteries and wind turbines.

It is also used in the defence sector and in high tech devices like smartphones, semiconductors, cars and computers.

Summit adds that there is also growing awareness of its potential role in the next generation of large-capacity stationary batteries, which is supported by ongoing strength in the global antimony price.

“The historic Munga Creek mining centre is spread over 1.5km north to south and 900m east to west, with large gaps up to 300m between some of the 11 artisanal mines present,” King said.

“These areas have not been explored for decades, leaving swathes of untested opportunities between known antimony producing sites.

“We are excited to be on the ground and look forward to progressing these targets to drill-ready status in the first half of next year.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Summit Minerals,  a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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