Bencubbin in WA emerging as potential significant rare earths discovery
Cygnus Metals (ASX: CY5) has found high-grade assays in an area that majors including Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) and IGO (ASX: IGO) are actively exploring for rare earth elements (REE) in the same area.
These are some of the thickest and highest-grade intersections to date at the Bencubbin rare earths project in WA, with grades of up to 7,243ppm TREO from latest drilling with intercepts up to 79m wide.
The results came from the company’s July air core and auger drilling program to expand the drill coverage and test the scale of REE enrichment across a major granitic body.
Other results include 79m @ 1,576ppm TREO from 32m including 8m @ 7,243ppm TREO, with positive project-wide auger results indicating strike potential of 22km.
Cygnus Metals managing director David Southern says these latest results at Bencubbin are highly promising.
“It is still early days in the discovery but we can see the project has significant potential and that’s why we are about to start metallurgical tests,” he said.
“While our clear focus remains on lithium in James Bay, Quebec, we are going to pursue Bencubbin with the aim of establishing its true full value.
“Our small dedicated Australian team will now focus on some follow-up air core drilling while samples are being sent for very important metallurgical test work.”
Bencubbin rare earths exploration is being conducted in parallel with Cygnus’ extensive lithium exploration program in James Bay, Canada, with separate teams assigned to lithium and rare earths.
Follow-up air core drilling is pending final government approval and is designed to test for scale, including and beyond the 22km long auger anomaly defined along the magnetic granite margin.
The regional program has been designed with 100m spaced holes over 3.5-4.5km spaced lines and will enable Cygnus to test the potential scale of a REE resource at Bencubbin.
Metallurgy is planned to be completed through ANSTO Minerals, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, which has extensive experience in REE processing.
An initial project has been developed through ANSTO to test the leachability of the rare earth elements and other critical metal by-products such as gallium (Ga) and scandium (Sc).
Initial results are expected to take 16 weeks from receipt of samples at ANSTO in Sydney.
 has found high-grade assays in an area that majors including Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) and IGO (ASX: IGO) are actively exploring for rare earth elements (REE) in the same area.){kind=link}