Scale rather than grade is the attraction of a very unusual rare earth deposit that explorer NorthX is preparing to drill in Central Queensland.

The Peaks project near Capella is based on peralkaline rhyolite formations in the shape of three raised volcanic domes.

NorthX exploration manager Stewart Parker said the only known similar deposit in the western world with this potential was Round Top in Texas, considered a strategically important project for the US.

NorthX has just received a Collaborative Exploration Initiative grant that will allow it to sink its first drill hole at the project in August.

“It’s quite exciting for us because it’s a new discovery made in 2018 by some academics at the Earth Science School at JCU,” Mr Parker said.

Related: Fresh funding for exploration efforts

Mr Parker is a long-time member of EGRU – the Economic Geology Research Centre at James Cook University.

It was networking through that group that brought him together with two critical minerals experts who recognised the significance of the unusual geological setting of The Peaks deposit.

Ross Chandler was conducting an honours project under the supervision of Professor Carl Spandler which pointed to an unexpectedly high rare earth endowment in the area.

“We decided that we would form a bit of a partnership to explore the area, which at that stage there was no tenement over,” Mr Parker said

NorthX has since carried out geochemical surface sampling using a portable XRF for on-the spot analysis of the some of the critical minerals being targeted, as well as rock chip and soil sampling for analysis.

The CSIRO and Queensland University’s WH Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre have also been providing significant support by looking at the mineralogy and potential processing options for these lavas.

This research has been funded through the CSIRO’s small companies StartUp program and through a previous CEI grant from Geological Survey of Queensland.

“This area is not similar to most of the world’s known rare earth deposits – they have considerably better grades than this project area,” Mr Parker said.

“But this area stands out because it’s a very large tonnage deposit, considered to be a porphyry rare earth as opposed to a porphyry gold or copper deposit.

“It is in the in 0.3 or 0.4 per cent total rare earth oxide range, lower than most of the world’s deposits that have been mined.

“The important thing with rare earths is not so much the grade as whether the deposit can be mined economically and in an environmentally sound way.”

Mr Parker said many high-grade rare earth deposits had a lot of sulphides, uranium and other deleterious metals associated with them.

“These particular prospects at The Peaks stand out as having very little in the way of deleterious metals associated with them,” he said.

“It looks like we’ll be able to extract the rare earths with an economic heap leach type process using a very low-level sulphuric acid leach.”

Preliminary testwork had very encouraging in terms of the environmental outcome and mining costs, Mr Parker said.

NorthX has based potential tonnages for the project on the size of the domes raised above the surrounding earth surfaces and grades based on surface samples.

”Surface grades are significantly higher than Round Top and tonnages based on the size of the three domes above ground are larger than Round Top,” Mr Parker said.

“Round Top in the US is interesting because in America they believe this deposit has the potential to be their largest resource for rare earths and be a platform for developing the critical minerals mining value chain through to manufacturing.

“So if our deposit is equivalent in size if not larger and has better grades then it also has this potential for us in Queensland as well.”

The rare earth elements and critical mineral elements present at The Peaks include zirconium, niobium, hafnium, tantalum, lithium, beryllium, gallium, praseodymium, dysprosium, neodymium, and terbium.