Reach lands boots on ground for WA niobium hunt

With the till topped up to the tune of $3.2 million, courtesy of a joint venture (JV) deal with budding producer Delta Lithium, Reach Resources has landed boots on ground at its Wabli Creek project in its hunt for niobium and rare earths in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region.

It comes after the company completed a tenement-wide soil geochemical survey over its Wabli Creek tenure late last year, lighting up a string of compelling anomalies indicative of niobium, rare earths and lithium mineral systems.

A total of 1489 samples were collected across the two tenements that make up the Wabli Creek project, returning promising assays peaking at 3860 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO). Results were interpreted by expert consulting geochemistry firm Sugden Geoscience, which identified 16 priority targets that warrant further evaluation.

The company says the top three targets make up a semi-continuous zone of strong anomalism extending more than 4km in length.

Reach raised more than a few eyebrows last year with the results of a surface sampling program that yielded a plethora of high-grade results, including a whopping 14.3 per cent niobium oxide and 6.7 per cent tantalum oxide. The samples also recorded up to 3689 parts per million TREO, of which 70.3 per cent was heavy rare earth oxides (HREO).

Encouragingly, the samples collected by Reach throw weight behind a slew of historical rock chip samples headlined by 32 per cent niobium oxide and 5.04 per cent tantalum oxide.

Clearly, Niobium and REE are an exciting part of the future battery-driven society and we think we have a real opportunity to capitalise on this at Wabli Creek. Following the announcement of our JV with Delta Lithium on our Morrissey Hill and Camel Hill projects and the $3.2M cash injection, this enables us more time to focus on this project and our Paynes’s Find Gold project in the Murchison, particularly whilst the gold price is so good.

Management previously reported that the source of the high‐grade niobium and HREO results was confirmed as a rare earths pegmatite swarm with a niobium, yttrium, fluorine geochemical signature. The company has now kicked off a field campaign that will include detailed geological mapping and rock chip sampling designed to further evaluate the source of the soil anomalies.

Eager to test the bedrock with the drill bit, Reach is also meeting with the Wajarri traditional owners to progress the heritage surveys required before kicking off drilling operations.

Located in WA’s emerging battery metal Gascoyne province, Reach has etched out a noteworthy parcel of prospective tenements that also includes Morrissey Hill and Camel Hill, nestled amongst prominent lithium players – Delta and Minerals260.

Sharing the neighbourhood with Delta’s developing Yinnethara lithium project has paid dividends for Reach with the two companies last week entering into an earn-in and JV agreement.

Under the deal, Delta agreed to a non-refundable cash payment of $3.2 million and can earn an initial 51 per cent interest by spending $3 million on exploration within the first two years. If Delta earns the 51 per cent interest, the parties have agreed to form an unincorporated JV to further explore the tenements making up the two projects.

Delta can then earn a further 29 per cent interest under a stage-two earn-in, taking it up to 80 per cent, upon spending a further $6 million worth of exploration in the two years after stage-one completion.

With the gold price hurtling to a new Australian high of $3308 per ounce last week, Reach is casting a wistful eye on its Primrose gold project near Paynes Find, about 430km north-east of Perth.

Located within close trucking distance to multiple gold mills, Primrose has an inferred mineral resource of 1.035 million tonnes at 3.2 grams per tonne gold for 105,000 ounces, including a higher-grade component of 582,000 tonnes at 4.7g/t for 87,000 ounces. The company says significant upside exists around the current resource envelope, which remains open along strike and at depth.

Reach has squared away a lucrative JV deal with Delta that guarantees steady exploration for the next two years in the Gascoyne, while providing a bank balance boost in a notoriously difficult capital market. While gold producers are no doubt pulling out the hedge books, Reach has hedged its own bets with a gamut of intriguing battery metal projects in the Gascoyne, bookended by its Primrose gold project in the Murchison gold hub.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au