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Hudson Resources announced the commencement of the 2011 drill program at the company’s Sarfartoq Rare Earth Element (REE) Project in Greenland. The objective of the program is threefold: (i) upgrade the resource at the ST1 Zone from the “inferred” category to the “indicated” category; (ii) expand the size of the ST1 deposit; and (iii) test several additional REE targets within the Sarfartoq Carbonatite Project.
James Tuer, Hudson’s President, stated, “We are very excited about the start of the 2011 field season. We expect that this drill program will allow us to upgrade and expand our flagship ST1 Zone from inferred to indicated resources which is a prerequisite to initiating a pre-feasibility study later this year. In advance of this, the preliminary economic assessment report is planned for completion by the third quarter of this year.”
Hudson plans on completing a minimum 10,000m of drilling in 2011. One drill is currently operating with a second scheduled to start in two weeks. Approximately 5,000m is planned to be carried out in May and June at the ST1 Zone as infill drilling. Additional holes will also seek to expand the resource which is currently open in all directions. The remaining drilling will test additional targets along the ring structure of the Sarfartoq carbonatite, such as at ST19 where Hudson intercepted 22m of 3.4% total rare earth oxide (“TREO”) (drill hole SAR 10-22) and 14m of 4.9% TREO (drill hole SAR 10-23) and at ST40 target which has a unique neodymium content at 46% of TREO. The drill program is expected to be completed by September. The drill core will be sent in batches to ALS Chemex in Vancouver for assaying. Results are expected throughout the summer.
Hudson has produced an initial NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Company’s ST1 Zone, which defined 14.1M tonnes averaging 1.51% total rare earth oxides (TREO) using a cutoff of 0.8%. The ST1 Zone contains one of the industry’s highest ratios of neodymium and praseodymium to TREO, at 25%. Currently, the ST1 inferred resource contains over 40 million kilograms of neodymium oxide, which is the key component in permanent magnets and the fastest growth sector of the rare earths industry. Neodymium oxide is currently quoted at over US$220/kg, FOB China, and at over US$100/kg, within China, according to www.metal-pages.com.
The Sarfartoq REE project is located within 20 km of tidewater and only 60 km from Greenland’s international airport. The project is owned 100% by Hudson. The Company is well financed with approximately $18 million in working capital.
Read the full news release here. Image, from Hudson Resources’ Sarfartoq project, shows Jim Cambon and Rune Keiler inspecting core from SAR10-36.
