Great Western discovers new rare earth showing on Douglas River project

Great Western Minerals Group (CVE:GWG) announced Thursday results of its 2010 exploration program at the Douglas River rare earth project in northern Saskatchewan, discovering a new showing on the site.
The work program on the project, which includes two claims known as Beatty River and Douglas River, included geological mapping, till, soil and geochemical surveys, as well as trenching and core drilling.
The rare earths processor said that during the work last year, geological mapping on Beatty revealed a new showing named Helipad. Like the original, historical showing, mineralization is concentrated in porous sandstone channels within the Athabasca Sandstone in a parallel, north-south structure, 50 metres to the west of the first Marline showing discovery.
Two trenches tested the new find, returning grades of up to 2.31% total rare earth oxides (TREO) over 1.0 metre in width and 3.0 metres in depth, of which 99% are the more valuable heavy rare earth oxides (HREO).
Three trenches also tested the extensions of the Marline Showing mineralization to the north and south, with rare earth element mineralization found in the trench five metres south of the original Marline trench. No mineralization was identified to the north, Great Western said.
The trench in which the mineralization was found had values of up to 1.14% TREO over 1.2 metres in width and 3.0 metres in depth, of which 96% were heavy rare earth elements.
However, the company said that core drilling of 14 holes, for 1,006 metres, which tested the Marline and Helipad showings, failed to encounter any significant rare earth mineralization.
"While we were generally pleased with the trenching results, which showed significant concentrations of heavy Rare Earths locally, we were disappointed that the drilling did not pick up similar results to the trenching”, said president Jim Engdahl.
“However, we remain encouraged that, with a focused exploration effort, the potential exists to establish a resource from multiple occurrences of heavy Rare Earth enriched mineralization."
Indeed, the company said that biogeochemical surveys in 2010 identified eight areas anomalous in rare earth elements, while soil surveys found seven.
This year, Great Western plans to carry out geological mapping, prospecting and geochemical surveys over the northern two thirds of the Beatty Claim, and will detail the anomalies identified in the 2010 program.
In a program in 2009 by Great Western, sampling of historic Beatty River trench results, which returned high heavy rare earth oxide mineralization, were confirmed.
Great Western's specialty alloys, which contain aluminium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements, are used in the battery, magnet and aerospace industries. The company holds a majority stake in the entity that owns the Steenkampskraal rare earth mine in South Africa, and also holds interests in five rare earth exploration properties in North America.