Eclipse testwork shows high Greenland rare earths recoveries

The Age

a day ago

Eclipse Metals' intriguing Gronnedal rare earths project in Greenland has cemented its position as a potential key source of the high-value magnet elements, neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, with a clear development pathway.
The conclusion follows recent analytical and mineralogical studies by SGS laboratories in Canada on selected samples, which confirm the presence of rare earth minerals including synchysite, bastnasite and monazite.
The mineral suite comprises an ideal assemblage to meet global demand for valuable neodymium and praseodymium which are key magnet rare earths feedstock needed for the global drive towards electrification.
Testwork samples were obtained from 23 core samples acquired by Eclipse from six historic diamond drill holes put into the Gronnedal deposit in the 1950s to a maximum depth of about 200 metres.
The holes are a key input into the company's recent transformational update to its mineral resource estimate, which massively hiked the inferred resource to 89 million tonnes at 6363 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO).
'In a time of global supply uncertainty, we're positioning to deliver strategic critical minerals into Western markets - efficiently and at scale.'
Eclipse Metals executive chairman Carl Popal
Encouragingly, Eclipse says the current 89Mt resource represents no more than about 6 per cent of the known carbonatite body, suggesting extensive growth potential, both laterally and at depth, below the present limit of historical drilling.
The mineralogical work utilised a Tescan integrated mineral analyser, X-ray diffraction analysis and chemical analyses to determine the geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of the samples.
The testwork shows the key rare earth minerals are relatively coarse-grained and demonstrate good liberation characteristics at P80 - where 80 per cent of the sample passes through precisely sized sieves within nominated size ranges.