Basin Energy Ltd. is looking to expand its exploration footprint in northwest Queensland, lodging a sole application for a key exploration licence adjacent to its existing Sybella-Barkly rare earth project.
The new application, which will be designated as EPM 29556 once officially granted, will boost the company’s total project area to approximately 5,864 square kilometres.
Located about 70 kilometres from Mount Isa, an emerging Australian critical minerals hub, the new project area sits on the western edge of the Sybella Batholith.
The expansion comes on the heels of impressive initial drilling results from the nearby Newmans prospect. Highlighting the area’s potential, drillhole SBRC26003 recently intercepted a thick, high-grade zone of magnet rare earths from surface, returning 18 metres at 401 parts per million (ppm) neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide and 49 ppm dysprosium-terbium (DyTb) oxide within a total of 2,160 ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO).
Basin Energy interprets these strong results as highly supportive of the broader region’s potential for sediment-hosted rare earth elements.
The new tenement area is deemed prospective for complementary clay-rich, sediment-hosted, and phosphate-associated mineralisation styles.
Basin Managing Director Pete Moorhouse said the application reflects the company’s firm conviction that the Sybella-Barkly district extends far beyond the initial Newmans discovery.
“While Newmans has demonstrated shallow weathered granite-hosted REE mineralisation, the sedimentary sequences west of the batholith represent a different but complementary REE target style,” Moorhouse said.
“Securing this ground ahead of our CEI-funded drilling and geophysical programs was a natural step.”
The company is well-positioned for an active period of exploration, backed by a recently completed A$1.1 million financing package.
This includes Queensland government Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) funding allocated for exploration drilling and a major airborne electromagnetic survey.
The remaining assay results from the Newmans drilling program are expected to be returned in mid-June.
