Rare Element Resources, a publicly traded mineral resource company, has declared gold and rare earth element assay results from 29 drill holes that were concluded in the 2011 drilling campaign at its Bear Lodge property in northeastern Wyoming, USA.
These assay results comprise four drill holes from the Carbon target region, four drill holes from the East Taylor target region, six drill holes from the Whitetail Ridge region, and 15 drill holes from the Bull Hill resource region. Assays for three drill holes from the 2011 campaign are still pending.
Rare Element Resources’ Vice President of Exploration, Dr. Jim Clark commented that the 2011 drilling results validate the extension of the mineralized bodies. The company is presently expanding the resource and has also outlined another resource that shows the possibility of higher grades of heavy rare earth element at Carbon, East Taylor and Whitetail Ridge areas. The company believes that the locality has good potential.
The rare earth mineralization intercepted in the 29 drill holes is hosted in the near-surface oxidized (FMR) in partially leached equivalents of OxCa dikes. These dikes are prevalent in the region and concentrated in stockwork zones and dike swarms on the Bull Hill West, Bull Hill, Carbon, East Taylor and Whitetail Ridge resource and target regions.
In the Carbon, East Taylor and Whitetail Ridge regions, overlapping of gold mineralization is contained within the alkali silicate host rocks, stockwork, and FMR and OxCa dikes.
Among 15 holes, eight holes were drilled in the Bull Hill Resource region along a northeast-southwest grid at azimuths of 225° and 045°. In addition, holes were drilled along azimuths of 270°, 090°, and 270° to analyze mineralized bodies along structures deviating from the core trend of mineralization.
At the Bear Lodge project, the Bull Hill deposits include light rare earth elements such as samarium, lanthanum, praseodymium, cerium and neodymium with quantities of several heavy rare earth elements like terbium, dysprosium and europium. The Carbon, Whitetail Ridge and East Taylor regions are rich in heavy rare earth element with abundance of europium, dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium.