Tsumkwe Rare Earth Element (REE) Project
Location: Tsumkwe, Namibia
Owner: Mount Burgess Mining NL 85%
Project Location
The Company's Tsumkwe Rare Earth exploration project is located on the north-eastern border of Namibia adjacent to Botswana. The Project is part of Exclusive Prospecting Licence 4320.
Exploration to Date
Work previously conducted by the Company in 2001, in its search for kimberlites, revealed that a number of percussion drill holes drilled by the Company in this area, yielded elevated lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce) and neodymium (Nd) values, when submitted for assaying.
In August 2011 five vertical open hole percussion drill holes were drilled into the Company’s REE target at Tsumkwe in NE Namibia.
Only portions from three of these holes have so far been submitted for assaying. All portions submitted returned elevated total rare earth oxide (TREO) grades as shown below.
Petrographic Analysis
SEM analysis of thin sections from drill chips from NAM909 has confirmed results from previous drill holes. The main host mineral of the REEs is synchysite. The synchysite particles on average are over 100 microns which should allow for easy extraction. Additionally, synchysite is low in both thorium and uranium, thereby reducing complications during the process of extraction of the REEs through concentration and separation. Thorium grades from the above assays averaged 29.4ppm and uranium grades averaged 4.8ppm.
