Canada-listed Mkango Resources has kick-started the second phase of an exploration drilling programme at its Songwe Hill rare earths prospecting project in Malawi’s southern district of Phalombe.

Mkango Resources president Alex Lemon says the company has engaged drilling contractors Cartright Drilling, of Goose Bay, in Canada, to undertake the project, which Mkango is implementing after being impressed with the outcome of the phase last year.

“Stage 2 drilling, designed to complement Stage 1 drilling, will mainly focus on an area measuring about 350 m × 100 m and com-prising rare-earth enrichment carbonatite, breccia and fenite lithologies largely exposed at surface and open at depths.

“The programme will comprise infill drilling and testing the depth extensions of mineral- isation intercepted during the first stage, which demonstrated that the mineralised zones have the potential to extend to depths of at least 260 m and remain open laterally within the extents of the Songwe Hill carbonatite complex,” says Lemon.

Mkango has also completed systematic surface channel sampling at Songwe using rock saws, resulting in the dispatch of about 400 samples for assay.

Mkango, which has been sending samples to Mintek, in South Africa, for metallurgical testwork, has ‘grabbed’ samples from two yttrium-enriched breccia targets proximal to Songwe and from other exploration targets within the licence area that are also being sent for assay.

“Preliminary scanning electron microscope analysis of a sample from one of the breccia targets indicates xenotime in the breccia matrix may be the source of yttrium enrichment,” says Lemon.

Results from the Stage 1 drilling at Songwe indicate that, in 11 of the 13 holes drilled, Mkango intersected significant zones of rare-earth mineralisation, including high-grade zones and areas of heavy rare-earth enrichment.

The outcome of the drilling programme, which also included surface mapping, confirmed that the extent of mineralisation at Songwe is much greater than indicated in historical exploration data.