Round One of Test Drilling at Wind Mountain Complete – Initial Results “Promising,” Geologist Says
Beating its projected timeline, Geovic Mining Corp Sunday (Feb. 26) completed a round of exploratory drill holes at Wind Mountain, in what the company plans as the first in a series of exploration programs for rare earth elements at the local peak.
In an interview last month, Geovic geologist Garrett Mitchell said that test drilling would likely continue on Wind Mountain through March and perhaps into April. But at the Herald offices Tuesday (Feb. 28), Mitchell said that, with the recent addition of an experienced driller to the crew, he had been able to “tweak some things” and accelerate the process.
In the end, Geovic drilled only six of the 10 holes for which it was permitted in this round of exploration. The Bureau of Land Management and state mining regulators last summer authorized Geovic to drill a total of 10 test holes, each no deeper than 200 feet, on the north slopes of Wind Mountain and adjacent Black Mountain. The company subsequently decided to focus its exploratory drilling only on Wind Mountain – and mining regulators gave the company the green light to drill up to 10 holes on the northern slopes of the peak.
But, Mitchell said, after drilling half a dozen test holes, it was clear that spots targeted for drilling higher up the mountain lay outside the “mineralized zone” where Geovic believes the rare earths are to be found.
Mitchell said that, in the coming months, he would begin preparing an application for a second round of test drilling at Wind Mountain.
Mitchell and his crew were removing equipment from the drill area this week. Geovic packed in a portable drill called a “Winkie” for the test holes, and, from videos Mitchell shared of the drill sites, it appeared the first round of drilling had left few marks on the landscape.
“You can hardly tell we were there,” he said.
Mitchell said that lab results from test holes drilled last fall “look promising.” While he could not provide specific numbers for the concentration of rare earths at Wind Mountain, he said the deposit appears to be comparable in grade to other locations around the world where rare earth projects are moving forward.
“We look competitive with other deposits, in terms of the grade,” he said. “Deposits in Canada and in Australia, they’re similar to what we’re looking at here – though those projects are further down the line.”
He specifically compared the potential of the Wind Mountain deposit to the Kipawa rare-earth project, in western Quebec; the company pursuing that project, Matamec Explorations, recently announced a preliminary agreement with Toyota, which is seeking a secure source of rare earths for electric and hybrid vehicles, that is meant to “fast-track” the project. And Mitchell said the Wind Mountain deposit is very similar to one being developed at a place called Dubbo, in Australia; both at Dubbo and Wind Mountain, the targeted mineral that contains rare earths is called eudialyte.
Geovic will have to obtain approval both from the BLM and the New Mexico mining division before it can start a second round of test drilling – a process that will likely take several months. In the second round, the company plans to target the east side of Wind Mountain, which Mitchell said will be much easier for the company to access than the northern slopes were.
The next round of drilling would go significantly deeper than the recent work – “probably around 1,500 feet or so,” Mitchell said – and would employ a larger drill rig.
Geovic believes that the deposit of rare-earth-bearing minerals extends from the base of the mountain deep into the earth, where the volcanic material that forms Wind Mountain intersects with the surrounding limestone. The second round of drilling would assess the deep and thickness of the “mineralized zone.”
“In a lot of these deposits you see better grades at depth,” Mitchell said.
Geovic says that, if it were to move forward with a production mine at Wind Mountain, it would use a “portal” to extract eudialyte ore from deep beneath the earth.
The rare earth elements Geovic seeks at Wind Mountain are integral to many consumer-electronic, alternative-energy and military technologies. Factions in Congress and the U.S. military are pressing for the development of domestic sources of the metals, the vast majority of which are, at present, acquired from China.
The impact that a production mine might have on the local economy here is unclear. Geovic representatives have said Dell City might be a logical place to establish a processing plant, which could generate jobs and economic activity, but they have also identified Alamogordo as the probable location for such a plant.
Rising thousands of feet above the desert grasslands of the Otero Mesa and the Diablo Plateau, Wind Mountain is an iconic landmark for area residents. Rock art and other archeological evidence demonstrate that the volcanic formations of the Cornudas Range, of which Wind Mountain is the tallest, were important to prehistoric residents of the region as well, and representatives of the Mescalero Apache tribe today say the mountains remain a sacred zone for their people. Conservation groups, allied as the Coalition for Otero Mesa, say that public lands on the mesa should be protected from extractive industry. Some local residents and members of the ranching community, while mistrustful of the conservation groups, have also expressed concerns about the defining landmark being targeted for mining.