Malcolm Titley reported in 2020 on exploration targets for Rainbow’s Gakara Rare Earth Element (“REE”) deposit located in western Burundi. The planned exploration program to convert the Exploration Targets to Inferred Mineral Resources, which will allow completion of a preliminary technical study on the feasibility of developing a full scale commercial mine at the Gakara project is to be completed. The results of a regional structural study by TECT Geological Consultants supports existing exploration defined REE deposits and identifies new vein and breccia hosted REE anomalies.
REE mineralisation is related to carbonatitic and/or peralkaline magma emplacement. Carbonatite is an intrusive or extrusive igneous rock defined by mineralogy consisting of greater than 50% carbonate minerals. Carbonatites usually occur as small plugs within zoned alkaline intrusive complexes, or as linear dykes, arcuate dykes (also referred to as ‘ring dykes’ or ‘cone sheets’), sills, breccias, and veins. Carbonatite complexes are built from several intrusive phases. These igneous intrusions are characteristically rimmed by metasomatised country rocks creating a “fenitized aureole”
with either or both sodium (Na) and potassium (K) dominated alteration.
Carbonatites are almost exclusively associated with continental rift-related tectonic settings, which is the dominant geological setting of the Project area. Similar magmatic and mineralized styles have been identified along the western branch of East African rift, about 60 km northward from Gakara in the alkaline complex of the Matongo carbonatite
REE mineralisation has been identified in 32 areas from Rainbow exploration activity and historical mining, with additional targets identified from the recent TECT study, which confirmed the presence of at least three large carbonatites which are the most likely source of the rich rare earth mineralization. Of the 57 REE targets identified by the TECT analysis, 15 of these overlap and support the mineralization confirmed in the existing 32 Rainbow deposits already identified. 17 of the existing 32 Rainbow deposits were not identified in the TECT study indicating the importance of using multiple exploration techniques in the ongoing exploration discovery process.
The Exploration Target estimated in this report is based on 10 of the 32 of the deposits identified. Additional Exploration Targets are likely as the exploration activity continues. The Project contains two styles of known mineralization, locally termed vein-hosted and breccia-hosted mineralization. Both mineralization styles contain the same basket of rare earth minerals and produce a very similar concentrate, based on analysis of the 64 twenty-five tonne batches sold commercially over the past 2 years of pilot-plant production.
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