Desert Metals jumps 30% as company hits huge shallow REE deposit in WA

Desert Metals (ASX:DM1) shareholders will be ending the week full of warm feelings for the stock as the company posts a dozen strong REE assay results, sending its price up 40% at one point in late morning trades. 

The company has another 11.6km worth of drilling assay results to announce to the market; the project in question is Desert’s Innouendy project, overlying the Narryer Terrane in WA. 

A likely driver of shareholder sentiment today were revelations that results are all relatively shallow; with the deepest intersection reported today at 32m. 

Equally promising, rare earths are held in clay, which is considered desirable for some downstream refiners, given that the REEs in question can be removed easily from host geology. Clay, after all, is easier to get rid of than hard rock. 

More drilling to follow: management 

“This is a great result at an early stage in exploration…mineralisation is showing encouraging grades over significant widths from close to surface,” Desert Metals MD Rob Stuart said. 

“The drill program extends over a 20km area so we look forward to seeing just how large this system becomes as the remaining 11,000m of assays are returned.” 

“Once assays are compiled we intend to execute a more expansive drill program to test the extent of this discovery.” 

A surface look at performance 

The results today only cover 1,120m of a drill program that picked up over 12,000m of core. 

In short, Desert Metals will be putting out a frequent news flow in the weeks ahead, and investors will be watching.

 Year-to-date the company's performance up 45%. 

The company finished the June quarter with $3m in cash and spent $0.96m over the period. 

Desert Metals' three month charts