Volta Metals Ltd. announced assay results from the second borehole drilled at its Springer Rare Earth Deposit (the "Property"), located outside of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada. Drill results exceed the Company's expectations and continue to expand known mineralization that remains open at depth in all drillholes to date. Borehole SL25-24 was drilled sub-vertical (at -85 degrees), to test the mineralization at depth below the historic resource estimate.
The drillhole returned significant mineralization, 0.95% TREO, over the entire sampled interval, to end-of-hole at 465m. Planned as a 400m hole, drilling was extended to 465m after visual core inspection confirmed strong, continuous mineralization beyond the initial target depth. This marks the deepest borehole completed on the project to date.
The results exceeded expectations and are anticipated to enhance the Company's understanding of the extensive, still-open mineralized system while supporting potential resource expansion. The Company expects to receive assay results from the third borehole and gallium assays from the first two boreholes in the coming weeks. The assay results verify and extend the host carbonatite complex at depth and will be incorporated in the planned update to the historic NI 43-101 resource estimate (indicated 4.167 million tonnes ("Mt") at 1.073% TREO and inferred 12.73Mt at 1.119% TREO at a cut-off grade of 0.9% TREO - Daigle P., May 4, 2012, Technical Report and Resource Estimate of the Lavergne-Springer REE Project, Ontario, Canada, Tetra Tech Wardrop).
Volta's qualified person has not completed sufficient work to confirm the results of the historical resource. No other resource estimates have been undertaken since the 2012 Tetra Tech Wardrop report. Further drilling will be required by Volta to verify the historic estimate as a current mineral resource.
