Montero drills 4.92% TREO over 24.30 metres at Nyati Target on Wigu Hill, Tanzania

Montero Mining and Exploration (CVE:MON) Tuesday announced the results from 1,030 metres of drilling at the Lower Nyati target upslope from the Tumbili Target area, at the Wigu Hill rare earth project in Tanzania.
Recent surface mapping has outlined a much larger mineralized target area at Nyati where the full extent of the zone has yet to be drill tested, the company said.
Highlights of drilling include two continuous zones of mineralization encountered in boreholes NYT001 and NYT005, with NYT001 returning 3.01% total rare earth oxides (TREO) over 62.5 metres and NYT005 intersecting 3.13% TREO over 31.8 metres.
Geological interpretations using surface mapping and sampling, and now diamond drill hole geology and assays, indicate that there is strong potential for the mineralized carbonatite dikes intersected to extend over a strike of greater than 500 metres and at depth at Nyati, Montero said.
"Drilling at the Lower Nyati target has defined extensive zones of high grade TREO mineralization where further drilling will be carried out to test the balance of the Nyati target area," Montero's president and chief executive officer Dr. Tony Harwood said.
"At Wigu Hill, Montero remains focused on defining further high grade resources while metallurgical testwork is ongoing in order to de-risk the project, targeting a fast track strategy to develop a low cost process for the sale of rare earths."
Borehole core drilling focused on two target zones identified from surface mapping, namely the east-north-easterly trend (NYT001 to NYT003) and the northerly trend (NYT004 and NYT005).
The northern trend returned the most encouraging results, while all of the drill holes were successful in defining continuous zones of mineralization.
A number of mineralised carbonatite dikes, some of which are over 20 metres wide, were mapped at surface and targeted by drill hole NYT001, and successfully intersected and confirmed steep dips of the dikes of around 75 degrees to the north.
Similar structures can be interpreted from drill hole NYT002 and NYT003, the company said, and a continuous trend has been interpreted over a strike of 600 metres and a width at surface of 150 metres.
On the northerly trending dike structure, drill hole NYT005 intersected almost continuous mineralization from the surface down to an inclined depth of 105 metres an average grade of 2.83% TREO and 1.96% SrO (strontium oxide).
Drill hole NYT004 was drilled obliquely to the strike to intersect the same zone and was successful, but with lower TREO grades.
The results of the exploration carried out at Lower Nyati to date have delineated an extensive target zone on which only a portion has been drilled, the company said.
Additional trenching and a program of infill sampling in between the current trench locations is being carried out to establish a more detailed understanding of the grade and continuity of the TREO mineralization, in order to define areas for further drilling.
Montero Mining is a mineral exploration and development company engaged in its flagship rare earths Wigu Hill project in Tanzania and has phosphate assets in South Africa and uranium assets in Tanzania and Quebec.
Last month, the company said it inked a non-binding agreement with Star Earth Minerals for the supply of light rare earths from its Wigu Hill project - a move that significantly de-risks the property.
Star Earth Minerals is a manufacturer of light rare earth compounds based in Mumbai, India, and is seeking a consistent supply of light rare earths for its customers in the glass, ceramic and catalyst industries, located mainly in South East Asia and Japan.
Through hydro-metallurgical testwork with consultancy Mintek, Montero has produced samples of saleable rare earth products, which were instrumental in concluding discussions with Star, Montero said.
The Wigu Hill property was first identified in the 1950s as a high grade deposit, with a large carbonatite complex measuring 6.4 by 3.2 kilometres.
The asset has bastnaesite mineralization and is considered a "look-a-like" to Molycorp's (NYSE:MCP) Mountain Pass project. The rare earth elements at the deposit are hosted in the mineral bastnaesite found in carbonatite dikes, making it similar to Molycorp's Mountain Pass deposit in the USA.
Rare earth elements are critical in the development of emerging green technologies and high-tech applications, from electric and hybrid vehicles and wind and hydro power turbines, to LCD screens, MRI, X-ray machines, mobile devices and other computing equipment.
Montero is working to update the initial NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate for its Wigu Hill project this quarter, and is targeting cash flow from a small mining operation at the Twiga Zone.
Full details of the drilling results are available at: http://www.monteromining.com