Business
Commencement of Drilling and Production Update
Commencement of Drilling and Production Update.
About this update from Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 4234B Rainbow Rare Earths Limited 10 January 2018 \n\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n \n10 January 2018\n \nRainbow Rare Earths Ltd ('Rainbow' or 'the Company') (LSE: RBW)\nCommencement of Drilling Programme & Production Update \n \nRainbow, the high grade rare earth producer, is pleased to announce the commencement of a drilling programme at its Gakara Project in Burundi ('Gakara') with the objective of supporting the mine plan for the currently productive areas of the licence and exploring the significant geological anomalies identified in 2017.\n \nGakara is one of the highest grade rare earth element mining projects globally, with an estimated in situ grade of 47-67% Total Rare Earth Oxide ('TREO'), and the only producing rare earths mine in Africa.\n \nA new Q1 2018 corporate presentation has been uploaded to the Rainbow website and can be found on the following link: http://rainbowrareearths.com/investors/corporate-documents/. \n \nDrilling Programme\n \nDrilling contractors have been engaged and the first phase of the drilling programme will continue through Q1 2018. It will focus on improving the understanding of current production area at Gasagwe as well as exploring the geophysical anomalies identified by the airborne survey completed in November 2017, plus Kiyenzi, where a large sill-like oval structure potentially 22m thick and 80m x 100m in size was discovered by a ground gravity survey earlier in the year. \n \nShould these drill results prove positive, a second phase of drilling will take place during Q2 and Q3 2018, with the aim of producing a JORC-compliant resource statement in H2 2018.\n \nProduction \n \nFollowing the announcement of the first shipment of concentrate on 5 December 2017, a further two shipments have now taken place. Production ramp-up has been proceeding according to plan, with the target of hitting a run rate of 5,000 tpa by the end of 2018. \n \nIn addition, work has begun to procure the capital equipment needed to increase production more rapidly, following the successful fundraising concluded in December 2017. \n \nUpdates during 2018\n \nThe results of each stage of the drilling campaign will be released as soon as the information is available, with first phase information expected in April 2018. \n...