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Hudson Resources (TSXV:HUD) hunts for niobium in West Greenland

Mining
CDX:HUD
15 December 2020 09:42 (EDT)

Hudson Resources (HUD) has received assays from its niobium and tantalum exploration project in Southwestern Greenland.

The niobium project is called Nukittooq which means “strong man” in Greenlandic to reflect the key characteristic of niobium as a strengthener of steel.

Hudson collected 38 samples from outcrop within the project area which sits on the Southern margin of the large Sarfartoq Carbonatite complex. The complex also hosts the Canadian based mining and exploration company’s ST1 Rare Earth Element deposit.

A total of 35 grab rock samples were taken from the outcrop approximately every three meters along the 112 meters of the roughly East-West trending structure that is coincident with an elevated radiometric anomaly. Three additional samples were also collected for mineralogical work along the same outcrop.

The average grade of the samples was 19.35 per cent niobium mineralisation, 0.27 per cent tantalum mineralisation and 0.38 per cent uranium mineralisation. Within these samples was a 30-metre segment that graded at 32.35 per cent niobium mineralisation, with the highest of these grades reaching 48.5 per cent.

Hudson Resources President Jim Cambon said mineralogical work has commenced, which will allow the company to rapidly move towards a metallurgical testwork program.

“We will be exploring similar targets in the near vicinity with an objective to commence a drill program in the first half of 2021,” he added.

The mineral of economic interest in the project area is pyrochlore.  The Nukittooq project is one of several niobium targets within a one square kilometer area that Hudson is evaluating. The targets have similar geology supported by historical high-grade niobium assays.

Niobium and tantalum are vital to a wide range of products in the energy, infrastructure, transportation, medical and defense sectors. There are only three primary producers of niobium in the world with typical mine grades ranging from 0.56 per cent.

The niobium price has averaged US$42 per kilogram over the past five years with expected demand growth of eight per cent per annum. Tantalum currently trades at US$150 per kilogram.

Hudson Resources closed in the grey for 36 cents per share.

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