Recent price rises in the commodities of hafnium and niobium have prompted multi-mineral explorer Prospech Ltd (ASX:PRS) to expand its Jokikangas project in Finland by incorporating the 4,852-hectare Honkamäki 2 Reservation Notification.

The project’s total area now sits at 7,062 hectares, comprising a REE-vanadium mineralised belt of rocks across Jokikangas and Honkamäki.

Historical (diamond) drilling at the site has pulled up encouraging results for hafnium, niobium and REEs, including 0.50 metres at 7,556 ppm (parts per million) TREO (total rare earth oxides) and 940 ppm hafnium from 22.6 metres; and 0.30 metres at 10,445 ppm TREO and 1,160 ppm hafnium from 32.8 metres.

Prospech is looking ahead to reviewing and sampling drill core from 81 more historical drill holes, focusing on hafnium, niobium, yttrium, scandium and tantalum.

Managing director Jason Beckton said the company had been keeping an eye on the price of niobium and hafnium in relation to Jokikangas – with hafnium recently hitting more than US$4,800/kg, an increase of more than 220% since 2021.

“We acknowledge the significant impact of recent price increases in hafnium and niobium on the potential development of the Jokikangas project,” he said.

“Prospech geologists are organising a program to sample diamond drill core preserved by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) to further assess the project’s potential.

“Iron-hosted, zircon-rich zones containing hafnium are visibly present at Jokikangas. These zones have been defined but the drill core remains largely unsampled for these critical elements.”

Prospech has been trading at 2.7 cents.

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