Barkly bags second NT Govt exploration grant

Recently listed Barkly Rare Earths has pocketed its second government grant in as many weeks, this time securing up to A$115,000 in co-funding from the Northern Territory Government to support expansion drilling at its namesake rare earths project in the top end.

The funding comes hot on the heels of a separate grant, also for A$115,000, awarded to the company just last week to advance metallurgical test work. Both grants were awarded under the Territory’s highly regarded Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations programme.

The latest non-dilutive funding will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the company and will help offset the costs of its planned 1200-metre drilling campaign.

The program will consist of 20 shallow stratigraphic holes drilled to a depth of 60m, designed to probe for mineralisation beyond the company’s existing inferred resource and generate geological data across its massive 5030-square-kilometre project area.

‘The Barkly project hosts a shallow rare earth element resource with significant magnet rare earth content.’

Barkly Rare Earth managing director Craig Wright

Barkly says the first holes are expected to be drilled in July, providing a near-term exploration catalyst for the company.

Barkly Rare Earths managing director Craig Wright said: “This co-funding offer recognises the technical merit and exploration potential of the Barkly Project, while reducing the Company’s cost exposure to an important phase of growth-focused drilling.”

Barkly is newly listed, having only hit the ASX boards in January after a comfortably oversubscribed A$8 million IPO, armed with an already substantial asset that sits ready for expansion.

Its flagship Barkly project, 350 kilometres north-east of Tennant Creek, hosts a shallow inferred resource of 40 million tonnes grading 2100 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO).

Notably, the high-value magnet rare earths – neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium – make up a hefty 34 per cent of the total resource. The magnet rare earths grade clocks in at an impressive 710ppm, a figure the company says matches or exceeds the total rare earths grades of other Australian projects that have already advanced to feasibility studies.

While grade is important, in the world of rare earths, it’s often the metallurgy that is the final decider. Barkly’s mineralisation is held in a sedimentary-hosted system of loose sands, a style that is uncommon in Australia but offers distinct advantages.

The deposit shows strong consistency over wide areas and being essentially mobile cover, requires minimal crushing and screening, pointing to a potentially low-cost mining and processing operation.

Barkly is wasting little time getting on top of its chemistry, with the first grant supporting a program to de-risk the project’s metallurgical flowsheet. The work has built on historical small-scale testing, which produced some impressive early results, including a 74 per cent extraction of high-value magnet rare earths.

Adding another string to its bow, the project hosts a 200-million-tonne vanadium resource grading 0.12 per cent vanadium oxide, which overlies the rare earths zone, offering a handy by-product option should Barkly choose to pursue it.

As the drill rods get set to spin next month, management will be looking to test the scale of its massive exploration target at Barkly, which ranges from 200 million to a whopping one billion tonnes of resource grading between 1600ppm and 1900ppm TREO.

With cash in the bank from its recent IPO, a solid starter resource, a monster exploration target and now two separate government grants in its back pocket, Barkly appears to be stepping on the gas early.

Whilst the NT Government’s funding might only be a small piece of the puzzle, a double cash hit appears a solid vote of confidence in the project’s potential. With the met work ticking along nicely, all eyes now move to what the “truth-telling” drill bit might uncover.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au