Narryer Metals (ASX: NYM) has reported an emerging critical minerals discovery at its Rocky Gully project in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.

Initial aircore drilling of 40 holes at the Ivar prospect identified multi-commodity mineralisation with extensive high-value scandium, magnet rare earths, gallium and vanadium.

Narryer believes the mineralised system may be analogous to carbonatites and related alkaline magmatic complexes evident in deposits across Russia, northern Europe and China.

Best assays

The company reported 18 holes containing more than 100 parts per million scandium oxide, while 22 holes contained more than 1,000ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO), 12 contained more than 1,000ppm vanadium oxide and 16 contained more than 50ppm gallium oxide.

Other assays showed grades of up to 518ppm scandium oxide and up to 117,666ppm (or 1.8%) TREO, including 5,783ppm (0.6%) magnet rare earth oxides.

Scandium oxide highlights included 19 metres at 232ppm including 5m at 407ppm and 19m at 212ppm including 3m at 339ppm, while best rare earth element intersections were 20m at 2,929ppm TREO including 1m at 1.06% TREO and 5m at 6,936ppm TREO including 1m at 1.8% TREO.

All results are from surface to 30m depth and hosted in unconsolidated regolith clays, making it attractive for low-cost strip mining and favourable processing.

Significant discovery

Executive chair Richard Bevan said the initial results point to a significant discovery.

“We have delineated high-grade zones of a range of critical metals with grades of over 1% TREO, which are very high for clay-hosted deposits and are typical of hard-rock mineralisation,” he said.

“We have only explored about 5% of the 79-square-kilometre Rocky Gully tenement package and these results strengthen our belief that there is potential to find a larger carbonatite-mineralised deposit in the bedrock within the project area.”

Narryer’s geological team is still mapping the relationship between commodities, which appear to be interrelated and begin at the surface.

The next phase of exploration will involve drilling identified zones of high-grade scandium and rare earths and initiating metallurgical studies to inform the targeting of a larger mineral system within the bedrock.