Epembe is an advanced stage exploration project with a well-defined, very large multiphase carbonatite dyke that has been mapped and sampled at surface over a strike length of 10 kilometers of which at least 7 km of strike length is mineralised. The dyke is 200-400 meters wide at surface. Work completed to date includes detailed mapping and over 11,000 meters of drilling with preliminary mineralogical and metallurgical studies. The carbonatite contains variable concentrations of pyrochlore which is unusually enriched in tantalum. The other commodities of interest are niobium (hosted in pyrochlore) and phosphate (hosted in apatite). Drilling covered only 15% of the pyrochlore hosting carbonatite. Grades of the drilled portion of the carbonatite average on the order of 150 ppm Ta2O5, 1,300 ppm Nb2O5 and 2.4% P2O5. Initial sorting tests (XRT) indicate the potential for significant physical upgrading. Planned work will focus on improving grade by optimizing XRT sorting and investigating amenability to XRF sorting. Further work will be undertaken to explore for extensions of mineralized zones along strike and at depth and to advance the project to a preliminary economic assessment stage.
