Sunshine Gold Limited has commenced aircore drilling at its wholly owned Ravenswood West Project near Townsville to test a rare earth enriched intrusion identified from stream sediment and soil sampling. Rare-earth enrichment up to 2.28% total rare earth oxides (TREO) have been identified in stream sediment sampling at Elphinstone Creek. Follow up soil sampling campaigns identified zones of coherent enrichment of > 1,000ppm TREO.

Neodymium (Nd2O3) and Praseodymium (Pr6O11) are high value rare earth minerals and comprise approx. 20% of the rare earths identified in soil sampling at Elphinstone Creek. Elphinstone Creek is hosted within the Barrabas Adamellite, a quartz monzonite occupying an area of 27km2.

The target was initially generated from elevated REE and Au in stream sediment sampling. Soil sampling at Elphinstone Creek demonstrated that the Barrabas Adamellite is enriched in rare earths, with >90% of the Barrabas Adamellite soil samples grading > 400 ppm TREO. Despite the high overall TREO content of the soil samples over the Barrabas Adamellite, discrete zones of highly anomalous (> 750 ppm TREO) are observed.

In general, TREO grades are highest in the west and north-east of the Barrabas Adamellite. Importantly, the average Neodymium + Praesodymium oxide content of the TREO averages 20.3%. Neodymium + Praesodymium are used in permanent magnets and constitute an estimated 90% of global REE value.

Gold anomalism appears to be focussed on Elphinstone Creek and may be related to drainage from the nearby Ravenswood Gold Mine. Further reconnaissance is required as soils up to 395 ppb Au appear unrelated to drainage and a historic rockchip sample grading 25.0 g/t Au is recorded near a small shaft in the Barrabas Adamellite.