These REE deposits are separate from Crossland’s uranium prospects, which remain the joint venture’s primary focus at Charley Creek and elsewhere.
During follow-up of Crossland’s detailed ground spectrometer surveys of the Cockroach Dam uranium prospect (NT) in the Teapot Granite during 2009, geologists identified rock samples returning elevated levels of rare earth elements (REE).
These rocks outcropped in areas with their own characteristic radiometric pattern, generally unrelated to the uranium anomalies, which remain the Crossland/Pancon joint venture’s primary focus in the Charley Creek Project.
Subsequent follow-up of areas with similar radiometric patterns established that there were widespread areas with elevated rare earth values.
Sampling of rock outcrops revealed that the REE suite contained unusually high proportions of the heavy rare earth elements, particularly Dysprosium and Terbium.
However, the analyses exceed the upper level of detection for six of the REE: Ce, Gd, La, Nd, Pr, and Sm, so for these elements the analyses need to be repeated by an even less sensitive method to obtain absolute values.
Electron microprobe work undertaken by Crossland has confirmed that the REE bearing phase is a phosphate mineral, which should result in good recoveries with currently standard REE extraction technology.
Crossland believes that these results are sufficient to justify implementation of a supplementary exploration program to appraise the extensive areas of alluvium that exhibit the characteristic radiometric response that has led the company to these results in the Cockroach Dam Prospect area.
