Defense Metals (DEFN.V) announced drilling at Wicheeda REE Project

Defense Metals (DEFN.V) announced that they are planning to complete a diamond drill campaign at their Wicheeda Rare Earth Element (REE) Project in 2021. DEFN is planning a minimum of 2,000 meters of drilling, saying they could do as much as 5,000 meters, which aims to expand the deposit and further delineate existing resources.

Defense Metals hopes to build on their 2019 drilling efforts, when they completed 13 diamond drill holes totaling 2,005m that expanded the Wicheeda deposit to the north, and further delineated the relatively higher-grade, near surface dolomite carbonatite unit within the main southern part of the deposit.

That 2019 drill program yielded some of DEFN’s highest ever intercepts, including drill hole WI19-31 that returned 4.43% LREO over 83 meters and 5.47% LREO over a drill core interval of 33 meters ending in mineralization.

With this new round of drilling, Defense Metals wants to continue their northern expansion of the REE mineralized dolomite-carbonatite zone and gain new information on the central and northwestern areas of the deposit.

“Defense Metals is pleased to announce its plans to complete further resource expansion and delineation diamond drilling at Wicheeda. Building on the success of our 2019 drill program we see a way forward to expanding the deposit northward, which has the potential to provide additional near surface resources, and to further delineation of existing inferred resources,” stated Craig Taylor, CEO of Defense Metals.

The Wicheeda REE Project is located approximately 80 km from Prince George, BC and is located close to existing infrastructure. The property has 4,890,000 tonnes of 3.02% graded Light Rare Earth Oxide (LREO) indicated, with another 12,100,000 tonnes of 2.90% LREO inferred.

Defense Metals has received interest in their REE samples over the past couple of months. In April, they received requests from four labs to analyze the REE samples from their Wicheeda property, with the purpose of potentially establishing a memorandum of understanding for an offtake agreement.

With interest buzzing around the property, it’s important for them to get more information about the project and where the best-graded areas are. Their recent private placement, where they raised $5 million, provided DEFN with some cash on hand. Defense Metals said that part of the funds raised in that placement were for the completion of a preliminary economic assessment, environmental studies, and, crucially here, further exploration of the Wicheeda REE Project.