Cadence Minerals discovers 21m tonnes of resources at Yangibana project

Mineral resource investment and development company Cadence Minerals issued updates on its Yangibana and Pilbara rare earth projects in Australia, with work set to begin on extensive ferrocarbonite/ironstone veins that had previously been evaluated by drilling in the 1980s.

Hastings Technology Metals, the operator of the Yangibana project, reportedly discovered a final JORC code resource of 21m tonnes at 1.17% of total rare earth oxides at the acreage.

Cadence, which held a 30% free carried interest in several tenements within the mineral resource, said the amount revealed by Hastings represented some 36% of total minerals buried below Yangibana and, more importantly, said it had a similar Nd203+Pr3011 grade to neighbouring tenements.

Kiran Morzaria, chief executive officer of Cadence, said "As electrical vehicle manufacturers continue to switch from induction to permanent magnet motors, neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr) are taking centre stage in the rare earth element suite.

"Yangibana has high grades in these elements, and we believe that this sets it apart from many other rare earth deposits currently under exploration or development.

"We look forward to the publication of the BFS and the mining plan so that we can determine when and how much ore will be mined from our jointly owned tenements," he added.

The firm also noted that Canadian outfit Artemis Resources had been contracted by Macarthur Minerals, the licensee of the asset, to begin exploration at its two interests located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Cadence held a 15.2% equity interest in Macarthur.

Morzaria said, "The discovery of conglomerate hosted gold within the Pilbara region of Western Australia is opening up a potentially significant new gold province, the mineralisation is thought to be analogous to the Witwatersrand gold province in South Africa where approximately 1.6 billion ounces of gold have been mined."

As of 1600 GMT, shares had slipped 1.69% to 0.290p.