{"id":11,"date":"2026-09-14T07:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2026-09-14T07:52:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:52:54","slug":"tundulu-rare-earths-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Tundulu Rare Earths Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"tundulu-app\" style=\"height:800px\">\n\n\t<header>\n\t\t<div class=\"wordmark\">\n\t\t\t<svg width=\"30\" height=\"30\" viewBox=\"0 0 100 100\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n      <circle cx=\"50\" cy=\"50\" r=\"45\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7A6A57\" stroke-width=\"2.6\"\/>\n      <g fill=\"#9A8C79\"><circle cx=\"50\" cy=\"5\" r=\"4\"\/><circle cx=\"88.97\" cy=\"27.5\" r=\"4\"\/><circle cx=\"88.97\" cy=\"72.5\" r=\"4\"\/><circle cx=\"50\" cy=\"95\" r=\"4\"\/><circle cx=\"11.03\" cy=\"72.5\" r=\"4\"\/><circle cx=\"11.03\" cy=\"27.5\" r=\"4\"\/><\/g>\n      <circle cx=\"50\" cy=\"50\" r=\"33\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#B594CE\" stroke-width=\"2.8\" stroke-dasharray=\"6.9 6.4\"\/>\n      <circle cx=\"50\" cy=\"50\" r=\"22.5\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#E2542A\" stroke-width=\"3.6\"\/>\n      <circle cx=\"50\" cy=\"50\" r=\"16.5\" fill=\"#E2542A\" fill-opacity=\".42\"\/>\n      <circle cx=\"50\" cy=\"50\" r=\"4.6\" fill=\"#E2542A\"\/>\n    <\/svg>\n\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t<h1>Tundulu Rare Earths Project<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<p>EL 0731\/24, Phalombe District, southern Malawi<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"quote\" id=\"betQuote\" data-live=\"1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"code\"><b>ASX: AKN<\/b><span>AuKing Mining<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div><b data-q=\"price\">A$0.010<\/b><span data-q=\"chg\">-23.1% today<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div><b data-q=\"cap\">A$21.3 M<\/b><span>Market cap<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"byline\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/bullseyeanalytics.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img id=\"byMark\" alt=\"Bullseye Analytics\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t<button id=\"panelOpen\" aria-label=\"Open project notes\">Notes<\/button>\n\t<\/header>\n\n\t<div id=\"shell\">\n\t\t<aside id=\"panel\">\n\t\t\t<button id=\"panelClose\" aria-label=\"Close notes and show the map\">Map<\/button>\n\t\t\t<div id=\"tabs\" role=\"tablist\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div id=\"read\" role=\"tabpanel\" tabindex=\"0\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\t\t<button id=\"grip\" title=\"Hide notes\" aria-label=\"Hide notes\">&#9664;<\/button>\n\t\t<div id=\"mapwrap\">\n\t\t\t<div id=\"map\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div id=\"tools\">\n\t\t\t\t<button id=\"fitAll\">Fit project area<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<button id=\"zNathace\">Nathace Hill<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<button id=\"zTundulu\">Tundulu Hill<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<button id=\"zDistrict\">Chilwa district<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<button id=\"flagEOH\">Flag holes open at depth<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<button id=\"zPlanned\">Planned 1,000 m hole<\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div id=\"key\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t<div id=\"status\">\n\t\t<button class=\"st-arrow st-prev\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Show earlier figures\" hidden><svg viewBox=\"0 0 16 16\" width=\"14\" height=\"14\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M10 3 5 8l5 5\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"1.8\" stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\"\/><\/svg><\/button>\n\t\t<div class=\"st-track\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>~5 km<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Garson ring complex<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>6<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Carbonatite hills<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>96 \/ 9,046 m<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Historical holes, surveyed<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"live\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>4,300 m<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>2026 RC, 31 holes<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>470 x 400 m<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Mineralised footprint, Nathace<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>16 \/ 31<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>RC holes assayed<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>5.52 %<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Best TREO interval, 16 m<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"live\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>510.6 m<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Deepest hole, open<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>4.11 %<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Best historical TREO<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>6.41 %<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>Best rock chip<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>13 %<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>HREO share of basket<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t<b>2.09 % REO<\/b>\n\t\t\t\t<span>JICA 1989 estimate, non-JORC<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<button class=\"st-arrow st-next\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Show more figures\" hidden><svg viewBox=\"0 0 16 16\" width=\"14\" height=\"14\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M6 3l5 5-5 5\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"1.8\" stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\"\/><\/svg><\/button>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<p id=\"legal\"><strong>General information only.<\/strong> Nothing here is investment, financial, legal or tax advice and does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs. <span class=\"lg-full\">Published by Bullseye Analytics, independent of AuKing Mining Limited, and compiled from public sources. <\/span>Read the ASX announcements in full and seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before investing.<\/p>\n\t\n\t<div id=\"lightbox\" role=\"dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" aria-label=\"Report excerpt\">\n\t\t<button id=\"lbClose\">Close<\/button>\n\t\t<img id=\"lbImg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<p id=\"lbCap\"><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t<div id=\"sheet\" role=\"dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" aria-label=\"Schematic drill section\">\n  <div class=\"card\">\n    <button id=\"sheetClose\">Close<\/button>\n    <h3>Schematic section at Nathace Hill<\/h3>\n    <p class=\"sub\">Looking north, roughly along 8280115 mN. An interpretive sketch compiled from public reports, not a surveyed section. Its point is the shape of the problem: shallow historical drilling stopped inside mineralisation, and the 2026 diamond holes went through the bottom of the old picture without leaving carbonatite.<\/p>\n    <svg viewBox=\"0 0 880 610\" width=\"100%\" style=\"background:#100D09;border-radius:8px;border:1px solid #3B3227\" role=\"img\" aria-label=\"Schematic cross section through Nathace Hill\">\n      <defs>\n        <pattern id=\"carb\" width=\"9\" height=\"9\" patternTransform=\"rotate(35)\" patternUnits=\"userSpaceOnUse\">\n          <rect width=\"9\" height=\"9\" fill=\"rgba(226,84,42,.10)\"\/>\n          <line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"0\" y2=\"9\" stroke=\"rgba(226,84,42,.42)\" stroke-width=\"1.1\"\/>\n        <\/pattern>\n        <pattern id=\"agg\" width=\"11\" height=\"11\" patternTransform=\"rotate(-40)\" patternUnits=\"userSpaceOnUse\">\n          <rect width=\"11\" height=\"11\" fill=\"rgba(169,140,196,.09)\"\/>\n          <line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"0\" y2=\"11\" stroke=\"rgba(169,140,196,.4)\" stroke-width=\"1\"\/>\n        <\/pattern>\n      <\/defs>\n      <path d=\"M20,118 Q180,58 330,93 Q430,118 520,148 Q660,193 856,208 L856,610 L20,610 Z\" fill=\"#1C1812\"\/>\n      <path d=\"M20,118 Q180,58 330,93 Q430,118 520,148 Q660,193 856,208\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#5FA98C\" stroke-width=\"2\"\/>\n      <path d=\"M300,138 Q430,178 560,228 Q640,260 706,300 L706,610 L240,610 Q250,298 300,138 Z\" fill=\"url(#carb)\" stroke=\"#E2542A\" stroke-dasharray=\"5,4\" stroke-width=\"1.4\"\/>\n      <path d=\"M300,138 Q280,278 240,610 L118,610 Q170,258 245,103 Z\" fill=\"url(#agg)\" stroke=\"#A98CC4\" stroke-dasharray=\"4,4\"\/>\n      <line x1=\"255\" y1=\"88\" x2=\"215\" y2=\"610\" stroke=\"#E33D2B\" stroke-width=\"1.6\" stroke-dasharray=\"9,5\"\/>\n      <g stroke-width=\"2.4\" fill=\"none\">\n        <path d=\"M350,94 L362,166\" stroke=\"#7FA8C9\"\/><path d=\"M398,106 L405,194\" stroke=\"#7FA8C9\"\/>\n        <path d=\"M470,126 L468,238\" stroke=\"#A98CC4\"\/><path d=\"M540,150 L552,328\" stroke=\"#A98CC4\"\/>\n        <path d=\"M620,178 L605,338\" stroke=\"#A98CC4\"\/>\n        <path d=\"M690,203 L676,424\" stroke=\"#EBE3D3\" stroke-width=\"3\"\/>\n      <\/g>\n      <g>\n        <path d=\"M676,424 L658,560\" stroke=\"#EBE3D3\" stroke-width=\"2\" stroke-dasharray=\"7,6\" opacity=\".5\"\/>\n        <path d=\"M716,214 L674,560\" stroke=\"#E2542A\" stroke-width=\"3\" stroke-dasharray=\"9,6\"\/>\n        <circle cx=\"716\" cy=\"214\" r=\"4.5\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#E2542A\" stroke-width=\"2\"\/>\n        <path d=\"M674,566 l-6,-13 l12,0 Z\" fill=\"#E2542A\"\/>\n      <\/g>\n      <g font-family=\"Instrument Sans, sans-serif\" font-size=\"10.5\" fill=\"#C4BAA8\">\n        <text x=\"326\" y=\"88\">JMT-22<\/text><text x=\"408\" y=\"100\">JMT-17<\/text>\n        <text x=\"476\" y=\"120\">TU026<\/text><text x=\"554\" y=\"144\">TU035<\/text>\n        <text x=\"620\" y=\"172\">TU110<\/text>\n        <text x=\"656\" y=\"196\" fill=\"#EBE3D3\" font-weight=\"600\">26NH032<\/text>\n        <text x=\"596\" y=\"440\" fill=\"#EBE3D3\" font-weight=\"600\">510.6 m, still in carbonatite<\/text>\n        <text x=\"728\" y=\"211\" fill=\"#E2542A\" font-weight=\"600\">planned<\/text>\n        <text x=\"700\" y=\"590\" fill=\"#E2542A\" font-size=\"11.5\" font-weight=\"600\" text-anchor=\"end\">~1,000 m, board approved 15 Sep 2026<\/text>\n        <text x=\"700\" y=\"604\" fill=\"#8E8578\" font-size=\"10\" text-anchor=\"end\">collar not published; placed here only to show the depth<\/text>\n        <text x=\"262\" y=\"84\" fill=\"#E33D2B\">wrench fault \u00b7 western ring displaced ~250 m N<\/text>\n        <text x=\"430\" y=\"334\" fill=\"#E2542A\" font-size=\"11.5\" font-weight=\"600\" text-anchor=\"middle\">REE CARBONATITE + APATITE CARBONATITE<\/text>\n        <text x=\"430\" y=\"350\" fill=\"#8E8578\" font-size=\"10.5\" text-anchor=\"middle\">synchysite + fluorapatite<\/text>\n        <text x=\"178\" y=\"300\" fill=\"#A98CC4\" font-size=\"11\" text-anchor=\"middle\">AGGLOMERATE VENT<\/text>\n        <text x=\"500\" y=\"222\" fill=\"#E33D2B\" font-size=\"10.5\">24 historical holes ended in mineralisation<\/text>\n        <text x=\"28\" y=\"146\" fill=\"#8E8578\" font-size=\"10.5\">surface<\/text>\n        <text x=\"28\" y=\"604\" fill=\"#5A5245\" font-size=\"10.5\">vertical exaggeration ~2\u00d7<\/text>\n      <\/g>\n    <\/svg>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<noscript><div class=\"bet-readable\"><section><h2>Overview<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:12px !important;color:var(--paper-dim) !important;font-family:var(--ui) !important;margin-bottom:16px\">\r\nFilled cells are the four magnet metals. They are why anyone drills a carbonatite. Tundulu's historical basket runs about 13 % heavy rare earth oxides, with dysprosium and terbium together at roughly 2.5 %, unusually high for a light-REE-dominant carbonatite.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>What this is<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"lede\">Tundulu is a carbonatite ring complex about 5 km across in the Phalombe District of southern Malawi, held by AuKing Mining under exploration licence EL 0731\/24. It has been mapped since 1962, drilled twice for other reasons, and never drilled deep.<\/p>\r\n<p>For most of its life the interesting fact about Tundulu was that <strong>24 historical holes stopped while still inside mineralisation<\/strong>, eight of them above 2 % TREO, because the rigs were chasing phosphate or ran out of rod. The 2026 program was the first attempt to find the bottom of the system. On 14 September 2026 it produced the project's first modern assays, and they hold up.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"facts\">\r\n <div><b>91.5 km\u00b2<\/b><span>EL 0731\/24<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>~5 km<\/b><span>Garson ring complex<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>6<\/b><span>Carbonatite hills<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>1<\/b><span>Meaningfully drilled<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>9,046 m<\/b><span>All historical drilling<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>~50 m<\/b><span>Average 1988 hole depth<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>What the old data shows<\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">Two intercepts above 4 % TREO from two independent operators: <strong>JMT-17 at 4.11 %<\/strong> over 13.9 m and <strong>TU014 at 4.03 %<\/strong> over 30 m from surface. In JMT-17 the grade rose from 0.65 % to 4.11 % as the hole went down, and then the rig stopped.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">A heavy-REE-rich basket: <strong>HREO averaging 13 %<\/strong> of contained oxide, Dy + Tb at about 2.5 %, hosted in synchysite and fluorapatite.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">Low radioactivity, at weighted averages of <strong>18.7 ppm uranium and 123.5 ppm thorium<\/strong>. Below NORM thresholds, which matters a great deal for permitting, shipping and finding a separator willing to take the concentrate.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">Phosphate as a genuine second product: up to <strong>97 m @ 14.4 % P\u2082O\u2085<\/strong> from surface, over a historical non-JORC phosphate resource of ~900 kt @ 22 % P\u2082O\u2085 defined in the 1970s.<\/li>\r\n\r\n<li class=\"tick\">A Japanese government survey ranked the ground before anyone owned it. In 1987 JICA put Tundulu in the top four of 25 sectors, listed it first, found it anomalous in all fifteen carbonatite pathfinder elements where Kangankunde was not, and measured its strongest anomalies as <strong>dysprosium, terbium, yttrium and niobium<\/strong>. It then drilled and published a preliminary <strong>0.6 Mt at 2.09 % REO<\/strong>, comparing the grade with Bayan Obo. See the JICA 1987 panel for the scanned pages.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2>Where 2026 got to<\/h2>\r\n<p>The maiden program was announced at 10,000 m and expanded towards ~15,000 m across roughly 50 targets after drone magnetics and LiDAR redrew the system. As at October 2026:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Mineralisation across multiple parts of Nathace Hill<\/strong>, reported 9 October 2026: 59 m @ 1.51 % TREO from 13 m on the western flank, 47 m @ 1.50 % from 26 m towards the carbonatite core, and 36 m @ 1.50 % from 85 m to the south-west, outside the footprint AuKing had interpreted. Sixteen of the 31 RC holes have now reported.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>4,300 m of RC across 31 holes<\/strong>, completed 31 July 2026. Carbonatite logged in 28 of them, more than 2,100 m of it in total, with seven holes carrying over 100 m of carbonatite.<\/li>\r\n<li>Carbonatite hit at <strong>Kamilala Hill and Tundulu Hill<\/strong> as well as Nathace, covering three of the six interpreted complexes, including a step-out 800 m east. Kamilala had never been drilled; its first two holes, sited off the airborne magnetics rather than off old workings, both hit.<\/li>\r\n<li>Twin holes beside historical collars returned lithologies within a few metres of the depths previously reported, which matters because no earlier explorer kept any chips or core.<\/li>\r\n<li>Two diamond holes both drilled straight through their planned 300 m depth because the rock kept going: <strong>26NH032 to 510.6 m<\/strong> and <strong>26NH023 to 400.4 m<\/strong>. Both ended in carbonatite, and core from the last five metres of 26NH032 shows it continuing. The system is open at depth, which means later holes have room to add to the model rather than merely confirm it.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">First assays reported 14 September 2026 from four RC holes: <strong>91 m @ 1.51 % TREO<\/strong> from 40 m in 26NH005, <strong>80 m @ 1.54 %<\/strong> from surface in 26NH029, and <strong>20 m @ 2.06 %<\/strong> from 113 m in 26NH004. Every announced intercept reconciles against the per-metre table published with the release.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">A second batch on 21 September widened it. <strong>26NH011 returned 72 m @ 1.51 % TREO from surface<\/strong>, including 16 m @ 5.52 %, from a step-out drilled due west to test how far the system extends. Mineralisation is now confirmed from surface at both ends of an east to west section of about 400 m, and the deepest holes, drilled into AuKing\u2019s priority central core, are still to report.<\/li>\n<li class=\"tick\">Heavy rare earths confirmed in the assays, not just inferred from old sampling: HREE+Y to roughly 8 % of TREO through the mineralised zones, and <strong>8 m at 16.09 % HREE+Y\/TREO<\/strong> in 26NH005. The elevated heavy grades track P\u2082O\u2085, which points at the apatite.<\/li>\r\n<li>Assays for the remaining RC holes are in the pipeline. All 4,500 RC samples have Malawi export permits. As at 9 October 2,242 had been assayed and 2,047 were at Intertek Perth awaiting assay. More than 1,300 m of diamond core is awaiting export permits of its own before preparation can start. The diamond core has been prioritised but not yet assayed.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"note hot\">\r\n<p><strong>Where it now stands.<\/strong> The first four holes have assayed at grades and widths comparable with the best of the historical record, from holes deliberately sited to test that record. AuKing has begun formal work on a maiden resource estimate, targeted before the end of 2026, and on 15 September its board approved planning for a <strong>1,000 m diamond hole<\/strong> to test the system far below anything drilled at Tundulu before. The remaining 27 RC holes and all four diamond holes are still to report, and there is still no resource.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>Getting there<\/h2>\r\n<p>All-weather roads connect the licence to Zomba and Blantyre through Migowi, about 25 km away and on the national grid.<\/p><\/section><section><h2>Geology<\/h2>\r\n<h2>Setting<\/h2>\r\n<p>Tundulu sits in the <strong>Chilwa Alkaline Province<\/strong>, a Mesozoic alkaline-carbonatite district in southern Malawi that also hosts Kangankunde and Songwe Hill. Garson's 1962 mapping for the Geological Survey of Nyasaland remains the reference description, and it identified three nested igneous centres:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Centre 1.<\/strong> A circular fenitisation aureole around a syenite plug roughly 2 km in diameter.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Centre 2.<\/strong> The carbonatite ring structure centred on Nathace Hill, 500\u2013600 m across. Wrench faulting displaced its western half about 250 m north.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Centre 3.<\/strong> Small plugs and thin sheets of meta-nephelinite and beforsite, emplaced after that faulting.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2>What carries the rare earths<\/h2>\r\n<p>Two carbonatite types, and they behave differently:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Rare earth carbonatite.<\/strong> The higher TREO grades. The dominant REE mineral is <strong>synchysite<\/strong>, in needles 10\u201350 \u00b5m long. Fine, but a well-understood flotation target.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Apatite carbonatite.<\/strong> Grades 5\u201330 % P\u2082O\u2085, with heavy rare earths sitting inside the apatite lattice. This is the phosphate co-product, and it is also where a lot of the HREE value lives.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Mineralised breccia and agglomerate fill the inner vent. Strip logs show apatite and HREE content tracking each other closely down-hole, which is a useful thing in a deposit, because one assay predicts the other. Gangue is quartz, ankerite and calcite.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>What 2026 changed<\/h2>\r\n<p>A drone-borne magnetics and LiDAR survey over roughly 330 line-km reinterpreted Tundulu from a surface-mapped occurrence into a geophysically constrained alkaline-carbonatite system, with the interpreted footprint materially larger than Garson's dome and with drill-ready targets under shallow post-mineral sedimentary cover. A former senior Rio Tinto geophysicist peer-reviewed the interpretation.<\/p>\r\n<p>Turn on both ring layers on the map to see the difference between the 1962 dome and the 2026 interpreted extent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Targets<\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Nathace Hill.<\/strong> South-west extensions, the southern corridor, twin holes to validate the historical data, and deep holes for vertical extent.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Tundulu Hill.<\/strong> Fence holes under shallow historic intersections, testing rock chips up to 6.07 % TREO. Carbonatite confirmed here in 2026.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Kamilala Hill.<\/strong> One of Garson's three principal carbonatite-bearing hills. Carbonatite confirmed in 2026 RC drilling.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Makhanga, Namuka, Chigwakwalu.<\/strong> Mapped carbonatite highs, effectively untested by modern drilling.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul><\/section><section><h2>Drilling<\/h2><h2>Three programs, three different questions<\/h2>\r\n<p><strong>JICA, 1988.<\/strong> The drilling arm of a three-phase Japanese government program that screened 30,000 km\u00b2 and 25 sectors before choosing where to put a rig. 24 diamond holes for 1,204.8 m, average depth 50 m, a rig limit rather than a geological decision. Tundulu got the largest survey area of the three Chilwa carbonatite sectors: 7.5 km\u00b2 and 243 ore samples, against 3.2 km\u00b2 at Songwe Hill and 0.8 km\u00b2 with no drilling at Kangankunde.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Optichem \/ Mota-Engil, 2014\u201315.<\/strong> 55 holes for 7,007 m, averaging 127 m, the deepest TU040 at 221.4 m. That stood as the deepest hole ever drilled at Tundulu until 2026. This crew was looking for phosphate. The rare earth intercepts are, in a real sense, a by-product of someone else's search.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>AuKing, 2026.<\/strong> The first program designed to test the REE system on its own terms, and the first to go deep.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"note\">\n<p><strong>Where the historical collars come from.<\/strong> DY6 Metals published the full collar survey for every historical hole, together with the 2014 assay intercepts, in an ASX release on 27 May 2024. The holes on this map are those surveyed positions, not a compilation from figures. The survey lists 96 holes for 9,046 m: 55 from the 2014 campaign, 27 JICA holes, and 14 older Geological Survey holes whose operator and date the source does not state. JICA\u2019s own published total of 1,204.8 m covers 24 of its 27 holes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"note hot\">\r\n<p><strong>24 holes ended in mineralisation. Eight of those were still above 2 % TREO when they stopped.<\/strong> Use the \"Flag holes open at depth\" control on the map to pick them out.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>Now it is the whole hill<\/h2>\n<p class=\"lede\">On 9 October AuKing reported assays from nine more holes. The grades sit in the same band as the first two batches. What changed is that mineralisation is no longer confined to one line across the hill: it turns up on the western flank, out to the north-east towards the carbonatite core, and to the south-west beyond the footprint the company had interpreted.<\/p>\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<div class=\"flag\">Western flank, drilled towards the core<\/div>\n<span class=\"num\">59 m @ 1.51 %<\/span>\n<p><strong>26NH001<\/strong>, from 13 m, including 24 m @ 2.02 % from 49 m, 17 m @ 2.46 % from 50 m and 5 m @ 2.96 % from 55 m.<\/p>\n<p>This sits beside 26NH011, the hole drilled due west in September. Two holes on the same flank, both mineralised over tens of metres, make that side of the hill a zone rather than a single lucky intercept.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<div class=\"flag\">North-east, closest to the core<\/div>\n<span class=\"num\">47 m @ 1.50 %<\/span>\n<p><strong>26NH006<\/strong>, from 26 m, including 14 m @ 2.00 % and 6 m @ 3.03 %, both from 40 m. A second zone lower in the hole returned <strong>9 m @ 1.53 % from 128 m<\/strong>, including 4 m @ 3.33 %.<\/p>\n<p>26NH006 and 26NH027 are the two holes closest to AuKing\u2019s interpreted carbonatite core, 195 m and 169 m from it on the position measured from the company\u2019s own plan. Both are mineralised, and 26NH027 is described as broad and continuous from surface, though no intervals were quoted for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<div class=\"flag\">South-west, outside the interpreted footprint<\/div>\n<span class=\"num\">36 m @ 1.50 %<\/span>\n<p><strong>26NH030<\/strong>, from 85 m, including 19 m @ 2.04 % from 86 m and 6 m @ 3.14 % from 86 m.<\/p>\n<p>AuKing describes this and 26NH009 as step-out holes that found high-grade mineralisation beyond the previously interpreted carbonatite footprint. The managing director singled out 26NH030, on the basis that it puts grade at depth well away from Nathace Hill and suggests the airborne magnetic anomalies are marking mineralisation rather than just host rock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"note hot\">\n<p><strong>Two things this batch adds that grade alone does not.<\/strong> The first is shape: the holes carrying published intervals now spread about 470 m east to west and 400 m north to south, with 570 m between the two furthest apart. The second is depth. 26NH006\u2019s lower zone at 128 m, and 26NH030\u2019s from 85 m in a hole dipping 75 degrees, are the deepest published intervals so far, and the company says they give it confidence that the deeper holes will show continuous mineralisation past 400 to 500 m. That is the claim the 1,000 m hole is being drilled to test, and its collar is now being planned inside the core area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"note\">\n<p><strong>What is in this batch and what is not.<\/strong> Per-metre tables were published for nine holes: 26NH001, 26NH002, 26NH006, 26NH007, 26NH009, 26NH012, 26NH027, 26NH030 and 26NH031. Headline intervals were quoted for only three of them. The tables are images in the release rather than text, so the per-metre values are not reproduced on this map; the intervals shown are the company\u2019s own. Sixteen of the 31 RC holes have now reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>The system got wider<\/h2>\n<p class=\"lede\">On 21 September AuKing reported a second assay batch, from five holes on the western flank of Nathace Hill. The grades match the first batch. What changed is the size of the thing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<div class=\"flag\">Step-out, drilled away from the target<\/div>\n<span class=\"num\">72 m @ 1.51 %<\/span>\n<p><strong>26NH011<\/strong>, from surface, including 50 m @ 2.03 %, 20 m @ 4.26 % and <strong>16 m @ 5.52 % TREO<\/strong>, all of them from surface. That last interval is the highest grade reported at Tundulu so far.<\/p>\n<p>The hole was collared on the western edge and drilled at an azimuth of <strong>270 degrees<\/strong>, due west, pointing away from the known system. It was mineralised from the first metre anyway. A hole aimed away from a deposit that hits regardless is stronger evidence of scale than a hole aimed at it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Its scissor partner <strong>26NH002<\/strong>, collared three metres away and fired due east, returned 22 m @ 1.50 % TREO from surface, including 8 m @ 3.39 % from 2 m and 8 m @ 2.09 % from 32 m. Those assays cover the first 73 m of a 150 m hole; the rest is still at the laboratory. <strong>26NH003<\/strong>, further north on the same flank, is reported to have hit significant mineralisation at greater depth.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What that does to the footprint<\/h2>\n<p>Take the 14 September holes at the eastern end and the 21 September holes at the western end, and mineralisation is now confirmed from surface at both ends of a roughly <strong>400 m east to west section<\/strong> at Nathace Hill. The 9 October assays widened that again, to a footprint of roughly 470 m east to west by 400 m north to south. 26NH011 runs about 41 m westward from its collar, which puts the western edge of known mineralisation near 800,718 mE; 26NH004 sits at 801,111 mE.<\/p>\n\n<p>Three separate holes are now mineralised <strong>from the first metre<\/strong>: 26NH029 in the east, 26NH011 and 26NH002 in the west. Near-surface mineralisation at both ends of a 400 m span is the kind of geometry that decides strip ratios, and it is a better sign for eventual economics than any single high-grade interval.<\/p>\n<div class=\"note hot\">\n<p><strong>The priority target is still to report.<\/strong> Between the two ends of the section, 26NH014 returned several mineralised intervals at lower grade, and 26NH001, almost on the line, is still at the laboratory. AuKing\u2019s own priority target is a large central core north of the first batch. Five 2026 holes were drilled into it from its edges, including the two deepest on the project, 26NH032 to 510.6 m and 26NH023 to 400 m, and only one of the five has reported. <strong>The deepest holes Tundulu has seen were aimed at its priority target, and their results are still to come.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The western flank also carries less historical drilling than the eastern side, so this is ground that sixty years of previous work largely skipped.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The first assays<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"lede\">On 14 September 2026 AuKing reported assays from the first four RC holes. They validate the historical record and, in places, beat it.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"margin:12px 0 18px\">\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">26NH005<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#C9A55E\">91 m @ 1.51 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From 40 m, including 43 m @ 2.00 % from 77 m and 15 m @ 3.40 % from 90 m. Drilled beside historical ground to test whether the old record could be trusted.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">26NH029<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#C9A55E\">80 m @ 1.54 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From surface, including 30 m @ 2.00 % from surface, 11 m @ 4.33 % from 2 m, 26 m @ 2.03 % from 53 m and 12 m @ 2.74 % from 56 m. Mineralised from the first metre.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">26NH004<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#E08A2E\">20 m @ 2.06 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From 113 m, including 12 m @ 3.24 % from 113 m, and separately 10 m @ 2.86 % from 84 m. This is the twin of historical hole TU071.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">26NH014<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#6F7A72\">step-out<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">Collared well south of Nathace to test a magnetic low. Several mineralised intervals, at lower grade, inside the anomaly. No headline intercept was quoted.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>Set against the historical best of 41.1 m @ 3.68 % and 30 m @ 4.03 %, these are comparable grades over comparable widths, from holes sited to check the old work rather than to flatter it. Two of the three cored the mineralisation from surface or near it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>The whole record, metre by metre<\/h2>\r\n<p>Annexure B of that release publishes every one-metre sample. Below is the full downhole profile for each of the four holes: TREO grade as bars, the HREE+Y share of the basket as the green trace, and the announced intercepts bracketed down the right edge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>What the profile shows that a highlight box cannot is how the grade is distributed. 26NH029 is mineralised continuously from surface. 26NH005 carries a broad zone through the middle of the hole. 26NH004 has its best rock at the bottom, still going when the hole stopped at 145 m. And the green trace runs opposite to the bars in places: the heavy share tends to peak where TREO does not, which is the apatite signature rather than the carbonatite one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Heavy rare earths, where they sit<\/h2>\r\n<p>Across the mineralised zones HREE+Y runs to roughly 8 % of TREO, with discrete intervals far above that. <strong>26NH005 returned 8 m @ 16.09 % HREE+Y\/TREO from 68 m<\/strong>, 7 m @ 12.75 % from 80 m and 6 m @ 8.88 % from 120 m. <strong>26NH029 returned 42 m @ 11.46 % from 13 m<\/strong>, 4 m @ 9.45 % from 60 m and 12 m @ 8.54 % from 68 m. Over their full intercepts the two holes average 2.92 % and 4.53 % HREE+Y\/TREO.<\/p>\r\n<p>The elevated heavy grades track <strong>P\u2082O\u2085<\/strong> across all three holes, which is consistent with the HREE-bearing apatite documented at Tundulu since the 1970s. That is the phosphate co-product and the heavy rare earth story turning out to be the same rock.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"note\">\r\n<p><strong>One correction.<\/strong> The HREE column printed for 26NH014 in Annexure B does not reconcile with the element data in the same rows; it runs about ten percentage points low. The profile above recomputes it from the reported oxides for that hole only. The other three holes reconcile exactly, as do all eleven announced TREO intercepts.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>How the samples were assayed<\/h2>\r\n<p>Worth knowing, because rare earth assays are easy to get wrong. Some REE minerals are refractory, so a partial digestion undercounts them. AuKing used <strong>lithium-borate fusion<\/strong>, a total digestion, with preparation at Intertek's Kitwe laboratory in Zambia and the fusion and finish at Intertek Perth by ICP-OES and ICP-MS.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">Certified reference materials (AMIS0356 and AMIS0939) inserted one in every twenty samples, and coarse blanks one in twenty.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">QAQC samples made up <strong>12.5 %<\/strong> of everything submitted, and the Competent Person reports the returns within acceptable limits.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">Continuous 1 m sampling irrespective of lithology, riffle split to 2 to 4 kg, with a documented spear protocol where wet or clay-rich ground defeated the splitter.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"warn\">Reported intercepts are downhole lengths. True widths are not yet known, and no top cut or cut-off grade was applied.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2>What the 2026 rigs found<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The hit rate held as the rigs moved away from Nathace. At the 27-hole mark it stood at 26 of 27, and every hole drilled into the Kamilala and Tundulu Hill step-outs came back with carbonatite, including multiple intrusions on both the western and eastern sectors of Tundulu Hill, 800 m east of the historical ground.<\/p>\r\n<p>Drilling has now delineated carbonatite across <strong>three of the six interpreted complexes<\/strong>: Nathace, Kamilala and Tundulu Hill. Makhanga, Namuka and Chigwakwalu have still never been drill-tested. Cumulative logged carbonatite passed 2,000 m at the 27-hole mark and exceeded 2,100 m by the end of the RC phase.<\/p>\r\n<p>Three things from the first half of the program are worth separating out.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li class=\"tick\"><strong>The old data checks out.<\/strong> The first two holes, 26NH004 and 26NH005, were deliberately collared beside historical holes to test whether the inherited record could be trusted. No previous explorer had kept any RC chips or core, so there was nothing physical to re-log. Mafic dolerite intersections came in within a few metres of the depths previously reported.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\"><strong>Kamilala delivered on its first test.<\/strong> Two RC holes for 298 m into a target that had never been drilled, sited off the airborne magnetics rather than off historical workings, both intersecting carbonatite. That is the exploration model verifying itself.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\"><strong>The system is bigger than the old footprint.<\/strong> Carbonatite was logged well west and north-east of Nathace Hill, in ground historical drilling never touched.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Managing Director Paul Williams has framed the striking feature of the early drilling as carbonatite appearing across almost all holes, not just around Nathace, and Tundulu therefore having potential to be a much larger system than first thought.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"note\">\r\n<p><strong>An early field signal, heavily qualified.<\/strong> A video field update from senior geologist Derek Halford, posted to the company's social media rather than released to the ASX, reported portable XRF readings taken during drilling detecting rare earth elements in quantities of interest at Kamilala and Tundulu Hill.<\/p>\r\n<p>Portable XRF is a screening tool used at the rig. It is indicative, not quantitative at these levels, and it is not a substitute for laboratory assay. Treat it as a pointer that the newly confirmed carbonatite may carry mineralisation rather than simply being favourable host rock, and nothing more than that.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"zoomhint\">Switch on the hole-trace layer to see collar azimuth and the surface projection of each angled hole.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>Down to 510.6 m<\/h2>\r\n<p>Diamond drilling opened with <strong>26NH032<\/strong>, a hole already drilled by RC to 150 m. The plan was a 150 m diamond tail for 300 m total. Logging kept finding carbonatite past that point, so the hole was extended, and it finished at 510.62 m. That is <strong>210 m beyond plan<\/strong>, on a rig that costs real money per metre and is not drilling another target while it sits there. Paying for those metres is a stronger signal than any wording in a highlights box.<\/p>\r\n<p>How it finished matters more than how deep it went. Core photographed from roughly 505.2 m to the end of hole shows variably altered carbonatite and carbonatite breccias running to the bottom. The hole was stopped because the program had the data it needed at this stage, not because the geology ran out.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"headline\">\r\n<div class=\"flag\">Board approved, not yet drilled<\/div>\r\n<span class=\"num\">1,000 m<\/span>\r\n<p>On 15 September 2026 the AuKing board approved planning for a single diamond hole to roughly <strong>1,000 m<\/strong>, to test the system at significantly greater depth. It sits inside the current drilling budget rather than requiring new funding.<\/p>\r\n<p>For scale: that is nearly double <strong>26NH032<\/strong>, which stopped at 510.62 m with carbonatite still in the core, and it would be the deepest hole ever drilled at Tundulu by a factor of about seven against the 1988 JICA average of 50 m. No collar, no timing and no rig allocation have been published.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>Every meaningful grade number in this project's history comes from a shallow hole, and many of those holes stopped while still in mineralisation. 26NH032 is the first to go looking underneath, and it found carbonatite for its entire length without reaching the bottom of the system. The company's own framing shifted accordingly: the surface footprint initially strengthened the district-scale interpretation, and the depth extension now indicates the complex may be significantly larger than previously interpreted. The model grew on both axes at once.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"note hot\">\r\n<p><strong>One detail to watch, and to not over-read.<\/strong> Red-orange alteration phases are visible in the core at around 449 m downhole. They remain subject to detailed logging and analytical confirmation. Alteration is not mineralisation, and visual observation is not assay.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>Where the samples actually are<\/h2>\r\n<p>The assay pipeline crosses three countries, which is most of the reason it has been slow. The position as at the 17 August 2026 release:<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"facts\">\r\n <div><b>1,270<\/b><span>At Intertek Perth, being assayed<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>4,165<\/b><span>Export approved, 7 permits<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>357<\/b><span>Still with the MMRA<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>Core<\/b><span>Sampling started, none reported<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>The first two RC batches are in Perth with priority processing requested for the first four drillholes. The bulk of the rest is at or in transit to Intertek's sample preparation facility in Zambia, with one permit covering 357 samples still with the Malawi regulator.<\/p>\r\n<p>Diamond core is logged, photographed and cut lengthways, with half submitted for analysis and half retained in labelled trays. Sampling runs on nominal 1 m intervals, flexing between 0.5 m and 1.5 m to honour geological and mineralisation boundaries, and core stays under company supervision through to AuKing's core processing and storage facility at Zomba. Thompson Drilling is running the diamond rig on NQ-diameter core. None of this is glamorous, and all of it is what a defensible resource estimate is built from.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Best historical intercepts<\/h2>\r\n<p>AuKing cites three headline historical intercepts when describing the project: 41 m at 3.7 % TREO from 8 m, 35 m at 2.7 % TREO from 15 m, and 30 m at 4.03 % TREO from surface. The first and third are JMT-22 and TU014 below. The hole behind the second is not identified in the public summaries. The 2026 assays above now sit alongside these rather than beneath them.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"margin:12px 0 18px\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>Surface sampling<\/h2>\r\n<table><tr><th>Sample<\/th><th class=\"num\">TREO<\/th><th>Detail<\/th><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"id\">7Y386<\/td><td class=\"num up\">6.41 %<\/td><td class=\"dim\">JICA 1988, Nathace Hill. Highest single surface sample<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"id\">7Y196<\/td><td class=\"num up\">6.07 %<\/td><td class=\"dim\">JICA 1988, Tundulu Hill east flank, 5.6 % P\u2082O\u2085. Highest grade from a hill nobody had drilled<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"id\">TUTR10<\/td><td class=\"num\">\u2264 3.35 %<\/td><td class=\"dim\">Trench, Oct 2024. 63 samples over 83 m; P\u2082O\u2085 to 27.5 %; HREO ~13 % of basket<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"id\">Sat-1<\/td><td class=\"num\">3.10 %<\/td><td class=\"dim\">Kamilala Hill satellite target<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"id\">BC2B<\/td><td class=\"num\">2.56 %<\/td><td class=\"dim\">DY6 reconnaissance, carbonatite<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"id\">7Y380<\/td><td class=\"num\">2.06 %<\/td><td class=\"dim\">JICA, carbonatite breccia<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"id\">Tundu-1<\/td><td class=\"num\">1.80 %<\/td><td class=\"dim\">DY6 reconnaissance, brecciated fenite<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<p>Of 85 rock chips assayed by JICA, 25 came back above 1 % TREO.<\/p>\r\n<h2>The 1989 historical estimate<\/h2>\r\n<p>From that drilling on the eastern slope of Nathace Hill, JICA published a preliminary estimate of about <strong>0.6 Mt at 2.09 % REO<\/strong> across three ore bodies, plus roughly <strong>0.5 Mt at 17.0 % P\u2082O\u2085<\/strong>. It is a keyhole number: one hillside, outcropping zones only, a 1 % REO cut-off and an assumed 50 m depth limit, and the report says plainly that it cannot be compared with operating mines. Songwe's equivalent 1988 estimate of 1.4 Mt has since become 21 Mt. The full context, with the scanned pages, is in the JICA 1987 panel.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>The 2026 program<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"facts\">\r\n <div><b>31 holes<\/b><span>RC, complete 31 Jul 2026<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>4,300 m<\/b><span>RC metres<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>28 \/ 31<\/b><span>Holes with carbonatite<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>2,100 m+<\/b><span>Cumulative logged carbonatite<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>510.6 m<\/b><span>26NH032, ended in carbonatite<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>400.4 m<\/b><span>26NH023, ended in carbonatite<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>Both diamond holes were planned to 300 m and both were extended because logging kept finding carbonatite. Core from them is earmarked for metallurgical and mineralogical testwork as well as assay.<\/p>\r\n<p>Samples travel Malawi to Zambia to Intertek in Perth. Management has publicly acknowledged shareholder frustration at how long that chain has taken, while arguing it has still moved faster than the regional norm. The current position is set out below.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Surveyed collars<\/h2>\r\n<p>Collar positions for the first 21 RC holes were published in the announcement of 2 July 2026 and are plotted here at their surveyed coordinates, converted from WGS 84 UTM Zone 36 South. Holes prefixed 26NH sit in the Nathace Hill area, 26KH at Kamilala. The remaining ten holes of the 31-hole RC program are not yet published at collar level.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"note\">\r\n<p>Grid is WGS 84 UTM Zone 36 South. Reported depths are downhole; true widths are not yet known. Historical collars are the surveyed positions published by DY6 Metals. Geological outlines on this map remain schematic, compiled from public releases rather than survey data.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/section><section><h2>JICA 1987<\/h2><h2>A government survey got here first<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"lede\">Between 1986 and 1988 the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Metal Mining Agency of Japan ran a three-phase exploration program across southern Malawi: 30,000 km\u00b2 of ground, 25 target sectors, roughly 1,000 geochemical samples assayed for 60 elements, and drilling of the best targets in the final phases.<\/p>\r\n<p>It covered the same ground that now carries Kangankunde and Songwe Hill. Its conclusions about Tundulu were reached decades before any current owner held the licence, which makes them useful in a way that company-sponsored work is not.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"zoomhint\">Tap any excerpt to read it full size.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Four of 25 sectors made the top tier<\/h2>\r\n<p>Combining geology and geochemistry, Phase 1 placed only four sectors in its highest category, those having high potentiality of the carbonatite deposit: <strong>Tundulu, Songwe, Chilwa Island and Kangankunde<\/strong>. Tundulu was listed first, and was one of only four sectors where massive, large-scale carbonatite was confirmed at all.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>On geochemistry, Tundulu outranked Kangankunde<\/h2>\r\n<p>Fifteen elements were chosen as carbonatite pathfinders: Ce, Dy, Eu, La, Lu, Nd, Nb, P, Sm, Sr, Tb, Th, U, Yb and Y. Three sectors returned anomalous values in <strong>every one of the fifteen<\/strong>: Tundulu, Songwe and Chilwa Island. Kangankunde sat a tier below, anomalous in some elements but not all.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>Tundulu ran heavy where Kangankunde ran light<\/h2>\r\n<p>The detail matters more than the ranking. Tundulu's <em>strong<\/em> anomalies were <strong>dysprosium, terbium, yttrium and niobium<\/strong>: three high-value heavy rare earths plus a critical mineral in its own right. Kangankunde's strong anomalies were cerium, lanthanum, strontium and uranium, the light-REE signature that defines its monazite orebody today.<\/p>\r\n<p>The heavy-leaning character now reported at Tundulu was measured by an independent government survey in 1987, well before anyone had a reason to want that answer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>The two were benchmarked against each other<\/h2>\r\n<p>Each sector chapter independently described the other as its peer. The Tundulu chapter assessed its carbonatites as being as large as those at Chilwa Island and Kangankunde. The Kangankunde chapter described its own carbonatite as one of the large deposits alongside Tundulu. In 1987 these were treated as equivalent-class systems.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>Phase 1 said: drill Tundulu<\/h2>\r\n<p>The closing recommendation was explicit. Geological, geochemical, radiometric and trench surveys plus <strong>drilling<\/strong>, to confirm the dimensions, grades and underground conditions of the carbonatites at the promising sectors, Tundulu among them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>Then it drilled, and invoked Bayan Obo<\/h2>\r\n<p>Phases 2 and 3 drilled three of the four top sectors: Songwe, Tundulu and Chilwa Island. Kangankunde was the exception. It was never drilled by JICA.<\/p>\r\n<p>AuKing reproduced the Phase 2 survey table itself on 15 September 2026, and the split is stark. Tundulu: 7.5 km\u00b2 surveyed, 500 m of trenching, <strong>24 holes for 1,204.8 m<\/strong>, 243 ore samples. Songwe: 3.2 km\u00b2, 11 holes for 558.95 m. Kangankunde: 0.8 km\u00b2, <strong>no holes at all<\/strong>. Tundulu took more than two thirds of the drilling across the whole program.<\/p>\r\n<p>At Tundulu, drilling on the eastern slope of Nathace Hill defined rare earth and phosphorus zones, and the 1989 consolidated report published a preliminary estimate of about <strong>0.6 Mt at 2.09 % REO<\/strong> across three ore bodies, one of them above 3 % REO. The report's own comparison was to <strong>Bayan Obo<\/strong>, still the largest rare earth mine in the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The tonnage is small by construction, and the report says so. It covered one slope of one hill, assumed mineralisation extends just <strong>50 m below surface<\/strong>, and counted only outcropping zones above a 1 % REO cut-off. On those assumptions, the report cautions, the figure cannot be compared with real mines.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"note hot\">\r\n<p><strong>How conservative that method was sits one valley over.<\/strong> Songwe's equivalent 1988 estimate was 1.4 Mt at 1.74 % REO. Modern drilling has since turned that same hill into a 21 Mt measured and indicated resource. Tundulu, which JICA graded higher than Songwe, has still never had a modern resource published.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>A phosphate co-product above Arax\u00e1<\/h2>\r\n<p>The same drilling defined a separate phosphorus estimate of about half a million tonnes at <strong>17.0 % P\u2082O\u2085<\/strong>, which the report benchmarks above Brazil's Arax\u00e1 mine at 15.01 %, and describes as having high potential to be exploited. Its final recommendation for Tundulu was further detailed drilling to define the extent, reserve and grade of the mineralised zones, aiming at increasing the reserves. That is close to a description of the program running now.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>How the survey saw today's three projects<\/h2>\r\n<table class=\"cmp\"><tr><th>JICA 1986\u201388<\/th><th>Tundulu<\/th><th>Kangan&shy;kunde<\/th><th>Songwe<\/th><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Evaluation<\/td><td class=\"id\">Top tier,<br>listed first<\/td><td>Top tier<\/td><td>Top tier<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Geochemistry<\/td><td class=\"id\">All 15<br>elements<\/td><td>Some only<\/td><td>All 15<br>elements<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Strong<br>anomalies<\/td><td class=\"id\">Dy, Tb, Y, Nb<br>(heavy)<\/td><td>Ce, La, Sr, U<br>(light)<\/td><td>Dy, Eu, Sm,<br>Tb, Yb, Y, Th, U<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">JICA drilling<\/td><td class=\"id\">Drilled<\/td><td>Not drilled<\/td><td>Drilled<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Estimate<br>published<\/td><td class=\"id\">0.6 Mt<br>@ 2.09 % REO<\/td><td>None<\/td><td>1.4 Mt<br>@ 1.74 % REO<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Status 2026<\/td><td class=\"id\">Maiden REE<br>drilling<\/td><td>261 Mt,<br>building<\/td><td>21 Mt M+I,<br>DFS done<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:12px !important;font-family:var(--ui) !important;color:var(--paper-dim) !important\">The first five rows paraphrase the 1987 and 1989 reports. The last row is publicly disclosed project status as at September 2026 and does not come from them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The pattern is hard to miss. The program's preliminary numbers badly understated Songwe, whose 1.4 Mt keyhole estimate became 21 Mt. Kangankunde, which it could not drill at all, became 261 Mt. Tundulu is the sector it listed first, graded above Songwe, and compared with Bayan Obo, and it is the one whose modern drilling chapter is being written right now.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"note\">\r\n<p><strong>Cautionary statement.<\/strong> The above summarises the <em>Report on the Cooperative Mineral Exploration in the Chilwa Alkaline Area, Republic of Malawi<\/em>, Phase 1 (March 1987) and Consolidated Report (March 1989), by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Metal Mining Agency of Japan.<\/p>\r\n<p>These are historical exploration results and historical estimates of mineralisation. They predate the JORC Code 2012 and were not prepared in accordance with it. A Competent Person has not done sufficient work to classify them as Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves under JORC, they must not be relied upon as such, and it is uncertain that further exploration will result in the estimation of Mineral Resources.<\/p>\r\n<p>The 1989 estimates were expressly preliminary: mineralisation was assumed to extend only 50 m below surface, a 1 % REO cut-off was applied to outcropping zones on one slope of Nathace Hill, and the report itself states the figures cannot be compared with operating mines. The Bayan Obo and Arax\u00e1 comparisons are statements by the 1989 report's authors, not by AuKing or by this page. Geochemical anomalies are statistical classifications relative to the survey's own sample population, not measurements of grade. Kangankunde and Songwe Hill are owned by unrelated third parties.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Sources.<\/strong> The reports are public via the Japanese government's JICA repository: Phase 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/openjicareport.jica.go.jp\/pdf\/10296879_01.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">part 1<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/openjicareport.jica.go.jp\/pdf\/10296879_02.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">part 2<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/openjicareport.jica.go.jp\/pdf\/10659589_01.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phase 2 report<\/a> of March 1988 that AuKing cites, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/openjicareport.jica.go.jp\/pdf\/10721678_01.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consolidated report<\/a>. Excerpt images are unaltered scans reproduced for reference.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/section><section><h2>Basket<\/h2><h2>Why the mix matters more than the grade<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>A rare earth deposit is not valued on TREO the way a copper deposit is valued on copper. TREO is a bucket containing seventeen different metals whose prices differ by three orders of magnitude. Cerium and lanthanum are close to worthless in surplus; terbium trades for hundreds of dollars a kilogram. Two deposits at the same headline grade can be worth wildly different amounts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Indicative oxide prices, 2026<\/h3>\r\n<div class=\"prices\">\r\n <div><b>~$97 \/kg<\/b><span>NdPr oxide, Aug 2026<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>~$178 \/kg<\/b><span>Dysprosium oxide<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>~$804 \/kg<\/b><span>Terbium oxide<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>~$110 \/kg<\/b><span>US DoD NdPr floor<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:12px !important;font-family:var(--ui) !important;color:var(--paper-dim) !important\">China domestic benchmarks, except the floor, which is the reference level under the US Department of Defense arrangement with MP Materials. Material sold outside China carries a substantial premium: dysprosium has traded around $292\u2013317\/kg FOB and terbium near $1,182\/kg. Prices move constantly, so treat these as a snapshot rather than a quote.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Tundulu's basket<\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>HREO \u2248 13 % of contained oxide<\/strong> on historical trench sampling, against roughly 1\u20133 % for a typical light-REE bastn\u00e4site carbonatite.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Dy + Tb \u2248 2.5 %<\/strong> of the basket. These are the two elements that hold magnet coercivity at high temperature, and the two most exposed to Chinese export licensing.<\/li>\r\n<li>Now measured rather than inferred. The September 2026 assays put HREE+Y at roughly <strong>8 % of TREO<\/strong> through mineralised zones, with discrete intervals to 16 %, and show the heavy grades tracking P\u2082O\u2085 across all three assayed Nathace holes.<\/li>\r\n<li>Hosted in <strong>synchysite<\/strong>, a bastn\u00e4site-group fluorocarbonate, in the REE carbonatite, and in <strong>fluorapatite<\/strong> in the apatite carbonatite, which is where much of the heavy fraction sits. AuKing has described the profile as bastn\u00e4site and apatite carrying abundant rare earth mineralisation.<\/li>\r\n<li>Tusker Minerals, then DY6 Metals, reinterpreted the combined historical dataset and identified several continuous zones of high-grade mineralisation in REE-rich carbonatite and apatite, assessed as enriched in <strong>middle as well as heavy<\/strong> rare earths with low uranium and thorium. Middle rare earths, samarium through gadolinium, matter because europium and gadolinium sit well above the light-REE price floor.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2>Why AuKing acquired Machinga<\/h2>\r\n<p>Machinga, AuKing's peralkaline eudialyte project north of Zomba, runs at about <strong>3.6 % Dy+Tb:TREO and 29 % HREO<\/strong> and is a peralkaline system carrying the heavies with niobium.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Two products, not one<\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Rare earth concentrate.<\/strong> Preliminary flotation at Auralia Metallurgy in Perth during 2025, on a 120 kg composite from trench TUTR10 grading 1.88 % TREO and 9.07 % P\u2082O\u2085, recovered <strong>more than 85 % of the TREO<\/strong>. Sixteen tests across varied reagents, circuits and grind sizes demonstrating recovery.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Phosphate.<\/strong> Intercepts to 14.4 % P\u2082O\u2085 over 97 m from surface, trench samples to 27.5 % P\u2082O\u2085, and a historical non-JORC resource of ~900 kt @ 22 % P\u2082O\u2085 plus ~1 Mt of apatite s\u00f6vite above 10 % P\u2082O\u2085. Flotation recovered <strong>over 90 % of the P\u2082O\u2085<\/strong>, and bioavailability testing returned citric-acid solubility above 40 %, with one test at 81 %, against an industry threshold of 9.4 %. That points at a direct fertiliser product from the near-surface phosphate. Malawi imports its fertiliser.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2>The radioactivity question<\/h2>\r\n<p>Monazite-hosted rare earth deposits usually come with thorium, and thorium brings licensing, handling and disposal costs that have killed otherwise good projects. Tundulu's historical weighted averages, <strong>18.7 ppm U and 123.5 ppm Th<\/strong>, sit well below NORM thresholds. Trench composites also returned mercury, lead and cadmium below detection.<\/p>\r\n<p>This is the same characteristic that made Kangankunde attractive to downstream processors, and it is one of the more durable advantages in the Chilwa province.<\/p><\/section><section><h2>District<\/h2><h2>Tundulu, Kangankunde and Songwe Hill<\/h2>\r\n<p>AuKing now cites Kangankunde at roughly A$1.25 b and Songwe Hill at about C$300 m, and places Songwe about 15 km south of Tundulu. It is plotted here at 18 km, the figure an independent compilation gives. Songwe Hill's economics, a post-tax NPV of US$339 M, an IRR of 24 % and an 18-year life, are the nearest published benchmark for what a Chilwa carbonatite can carry. All three sit in the Chilwa Alkaline Province. The distinction worth understanding is structural: Tundulu is a multi-centre ring complex containing six named carbonatite hills plus satellite dykes and plugs. Its two neighbours are each a single sub-kilometre body. Tundulu's fenite dome is about twice Kangankunde's diameter and more than three times Songwe Hill's.<\/p>\r\n<p>That cuts both ways. A larger system is a larger exploration target, and a larger system with no resource is a long way behind two deposits that have finished feasibility studies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<table class=\"cmp\"><tr><th><\/th><th>Tundulu<\/th><th>Kangankunde<\/th><th>Songwe Hill<\/th><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Owner<\/td><td class=\"id\">AuKing (AKN)<\/td><td>Lindian (LIN)<\/td><td>Mkango (MKA)<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">System<\/td><td class=\"id\">~5 km ring,<br>6 hills<\/td><td>~0.7 \u00d7 0.4 km core<\/td><td>~0.8 km core<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Fenite halo<\/td><td class=\"id\">~5 km<\/td><td>~2.5 km<\/td><td>~1.5 km<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Resource<\/td><td class=\"id\">None<\/td><td>261 Mt<br>@ ~2.19 %<\/td><td>21 Mt M+I<br>@ 1.41 %<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Reserve<\/td><td class=\"id\">None<\/td><td>23.7 Mt<br>@ 2.9 %<\/td><td>18.1 Mt<br>@ 1.16 %<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Stage<\/td><td class=\"id\">Maiden drilling<\/td><td>In construction<\/td><td>DFS complete<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Distance<\/td><td class=\"id\">reference<\/td><td>~105 km NW<\/td><td>~18 km S<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<tr><td class=\"dim\">Market cap<\/td><td class=\"id\">see Company<\/td><td>~A$1.25 b<\/td><td>~C$300 m<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<p>The 1987 JICA survey ranked all three in its top tier of 25 sectors, listed Tundulu first, and separated them on geochemistry: Tundulu and Songwe were anomalous in all fifteen pathfinder elements, Kangankunde in some only. Tundulu's strong anomalies were the heavy rare earths, Kangankunde's the lights.<\/p>\r\n<p>JICA reached its own conclusion in 1988: the Kangankunde and Tundulu carbonatites are, in its words, almost the same. It then allocated Tundulu the largest survey area of the three and drilled 24 shallow holes into it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Malawi as a place to do this<\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">A functioning mining code under the Mines and Minerals Act 2023, which replaced the 2018 Act, and a district with two projects that have taken deposits through feasibility: Lindian targeting first production from Kangankunde, and Mkango with a completed DFS at Songwe.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">The <strong>Nacala corridor<\/strong> is built and running: 912 km of rail from Malawi to a deep-water Indian Ocean port in Mozambique, upgraded between 2017 and 2022 with financing from the African Development Bank, JICA and the World Bank. Capacity is far beyond anything a rare earth mine would need. Two of the Malawi sections, 245 km of it, were built by <strong>Mota-Engil<\/strong>, the same contractor that drilled Tundulu for phosphate in 2014 and 2015. Kangankunde's plan trucks concentrate to Limbe and rails it from there.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">Japan has put the corridor at the centre of its Africa infrastructure push. At TICAD 9 in August 2025 it pledged up to <strong>US$7 billion<\/strong> for African connectivity, US$5.5 bn through EPSA and US$1.5 bn through JICA, naming the Nacala corridor among the targets. Japanese interest is explicitly tied to Malawi's critical minerals, with Sovereign Metals' Kasiya rutile and graphite project and its planned rail spur driving much of it. A jurisdiction where a mining-led rail case is being taken seriously is a better place to be than one where it is not.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"tick\">Grid power at Migowi, about 25 km from the licence, and all-weather road access.<\/li>\r\n\t<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2>The market backdrop<\/h2>\r\n<p>NdPr oxide roughly doubled from about $49\/kg in December 2024 to a multi-year high near $111\/kg in February 2026, before easing to around $97\/kg by August, below the ~$110\/kg reference level established by the US Department of Defense arrangement with MP Materials. Heavy rare earths have behaved differently again, with dysprosium and terbium holding their gains through the light-REE correction.<\/p>\r\n<p>Two structural things changed in the background. Western separation and magnet capacity now exists at commercial scale for the first time in decades, so a non-Chinese concentrate has somewhere to go. And China's export licensing regime for rare earths turned them into policy instruments, and the November 2026 review of that regime is the single largest near-term swing factor for the prices above.<\/p><\/section><section><h2>Company<\/h2><h2>The company<\/h2>\r\n<p>AuKing Mining Limited is a small ASX-listed explorer, managed by Paul Williams and based in Brisbane. Tundulu became its flagship in April 2026 and it has been buying ground around it ever since.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"facts\">\r\n <div><b>ASX: AKN<\/b><span>AuKing Mining Limited<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>~2.13 bn<\/b><span>Shares on issue, Jul 2026<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>A$5.0 m<\/b><span>Placement, oversubscribed<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>A$0.025<\/b><span>Placement price, Jul 2026<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p style=\"font-size:12px !important;font-family:var(--ui) !important;color:var(--paper-dim) !important\">Market capitalisation has moved with the share price through 2026, at roughly A$60 m around the July raise and near A$42 m at 1.8 c in August. Check a live quote rather than relying on any figure on this page.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Capital structure<\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>July 2026 placement:<\/strong> 200,000,000 shares at A$0.025 raising A$5 m, oversubscribed, plus 35,000,000 options at A$0.006 expiring 31 December 2026 issued to GBA Capital and Whairo Capital.<\/li>\r\n<li>2,311,190 shares issued at A$0.025 to settle road maintenance fees at Tundulu under the Mkaka service contract.<\/li>\r\n<li>Issued capital of roughly <strong>2.134 billion ordinary shares<\/strong> after those issues, plus unquoted options and performance rights.<\/li>\r\n<li>An <strong>EGM on 19 October 2026<\/strong> in Brisbane seeks ratification of the placement shares, the service-contract shares and the broker options.<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"warn\">This is a pre-resource explorer funding itself with equity. Further dilution should be the base case, not the exception.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h2>The wider portfolio<\/h2>\r\n<p>AuKing has assembled a Malawi critical minerals position rather than a single asset, with Tusker Minerals on the other side of the whole lot. Two separate agreements, announced two weeks apart, do the work:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Machinga, 4 August.<\/strong> A$750,000 cash and A$750,000 in shares on completion, A$1.25 m cash within 12 months, and A$1.25 m in performance shares on a 10 Mt at 0.65 % TREO resource within three years. Roughly A$4 m in total.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Green Exploration, 18 August.<\/strong> The structure changed: rather than buying the Machinga licences, AuKing agreed to buy the Malawian company that holds them. Consideration is a further A$50,000 cash and A$250,000 in shares on completion, 10 million shares at A$0.025 under 12 months of escrow, A$500,000 in performance shares tied to Ngala Hill drilling, and another A$50,000 cash within three months. About A$850,000 on top of the Machinga terms, for a combined figure near A$4.85 m.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Green Exploration also holds the <strong>Tundulu<\/strong> licence, so the same transaction settles title to the flagship. Three of its four licences sit in southern Malawi within reach of the Zomba base: one field team, one logistics chain and one set of government relationships now cover four projects instead of one. That is the commercial argument, and it is a reasonable one for a company this size.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>What comes with it<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Machinga.<\/strong> Heavy rare earths and niobium, 200.4 km\u00b2. Covered below.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Salambidwe.<\/strong> EL 0518, 24.9 km\u00b2, on the Mozambique border. A ring complex roughly 6 km across of syenites and nepheline-syenites with an agglomeratic core, so a different style again to both Tundulu and Machinga. Globe rock chips returned 2.05 % TREO and, separately, 7,924 ppm Nb\u2082O\u2085 at a 33.2 % HREO:TREO ratio, with zirconium and tantalum through the same samples. DY6 collected 514 soil and rock samples across a 50 km grid in 2024 with 45 line-km of airborne EM and radiometrics, defining an eastern zone about 1,700 m long and a western trend over 2 km. <strong>It has never been drilled.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Ngala Hill.<\/strong> EL 0510, 16.4 km\u00b2, about 35 km south-south-west of Blantyre, near the Nacala corridor and grid power. An outcropping palladium-rich ultramafic chonolith, 2.4 by 0.7 km, with a Main Zone over roughly 2 km of strike, a massive sulphide zone and a western sill. Trenching in 1999 and 2000 returned 64 m at 1.41 g\/t PGE+Au and 70 m at 1.12 g\/t including 8 m at 3.3 g\/t. Read the risks panel before treating those numbers as a guide to what lies beneath.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Karonga.<\/strong> EL 0782\/24, 36 km\u00b2, about 440 km north of Lilongwe and a long way from everything else. Greenfield copper with malachite and azurite alongside sulphides in quartzite.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Ngala Hill and Karonga are earmarked for a proposed copper-focused spin-off alongside AuKing's existing copper interests. For a company holding rare earths, copper, PGE, uranium and tin, separating the copper is a rational answer to the discount that diversified juniors carry.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Outside Malawi<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Koongie Park<\/strong> copper-zinc-silver, Western Australia, held as a <strong>49 % joint venture with Cobalt Blue Holdings<\/strong>.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Mkuju<\/strong> uranium, southern Tanzania.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Big Wilson<\/strong> tin-tungsten, north-western Tasmania.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h3>Performance hurdles worth reading<\/h3>\r\n<p>Both deals put a meaningful slice of consideration behind exploration outcomes rather than signatures. Machinga's A$1.25 m converts on a JORC resource of at least 10 Mt at 0.65 % TREO within three years. Ngala Hill's A$500,000 converts only if AuKing announces <strong>any two<\/strong> drill intercepts within three years clearing one of: 20 m at 1.5 g\/t 3E or better, 15 m at 2.0 g\/t, 10 m at 2.5 g\/t, or at least 20 m carrying 1.0 g\/t 3E together with 0.5 % copper. Conversion is A$0.025 divided by the 90-day VWAP, capped at one ordinary share each.<\/p>\r\n<p>Cash out the door on completion of the Green Exploration deal is A$100,000 across two instalments. Most of the value only transfers if the ground performs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Machinga, the heavy half<\/h2>\r\n<p>Machinga is not a second Tundulu. It is a different deposit type carrying a different basket, which is rather the point of owning both.<\/p>\r\n<p>Where Tundulu is a carbonatite ring complex, Machinga is <strong>peralkaline<\/strong>, on the north-eastern margin of the Zomba-Malosa intrusive complex. Rare earths sit in <strong>eudialyte<\/strong>, a zirconosilicate, together with bastn\u00e4site and xenotime, inside a hydrothermal breccia striking north-west and dipping about 35\u00b0 to the north-east. Mineralised zones thicken at depth and continue into the second licence. The described analogues are Strange Lake in Quebec and Bokan Mountain in Alaska.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"facts\">\r\n <div><b>200.4 km\u00b2<\/b><span>EL 0529 + EL 0705<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>8,588 m<\/b><span>Historical drilling, 79 holes<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>~29 %<\/b><span>HREO share of TREO<\/span><\/div>\r\n <div><b>3.6 %<\/b><span>Dy + Tb share of TREO<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>Globe Metals and Mining drilled 36 RC holes for 4,045 m plus 1,635 m of trenching between 2010 and 2012. DY6 Metals followed in 2023 with 35 RC holes for 3,643 m and 8 diamond holes for 900 m. The averages above were struck at a 0.25 % TREO cut-off, on hard-rock grades of 0.6 to 1.4 % TREO.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin:12px 0 18px\">\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">MDD007<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#C9A55E\">15.1 m @ 1.01 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From 23.9 m, with 0.36 % Nb\u2082O\u2085 and 27.7 % HREO. Includes 4 m @ 1.75 % TREO and 0.63 % Nb\u2082O\u2085. Mineralogy on this interval also returned 15.2 % NdPr oxide, so close to a fifth of the contained oxide is magnet metal.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">MDD006<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#C9A55E\">5.2 m @ 1.61 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From 41.4 m, with 0.66 % Nb\u2082O\u2085 and 30.7 % HREO. Includes 1 m @ 2.67 % TREO and 1.01 % Nb\u2082O\u2085, the peak of the project.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">MR011<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#C9A55E\">7 m @ 1.42 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From 65 m, with 0.49 % Nb\u2082O\u2085 and 29.0 % HREO.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">MDD008<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#C9A55E\">9 m @ 1.11 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From 41 m, with 0.41 % Nb\u2082O\u2085 and 27.6 % HREO. Includes 3 m @ 1.56 % TREO at 31.0 % HREO, the strongest heavy skew in the dataset.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">MR004<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#6F7A72\">6.1 m @ 1.09 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From 22.5 m, with 0.4 % Nb\u2082O\u2085.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"rec\"><div class=\"rec-h\"><span class=\"rec-id\">MR024<\/span><span class=\"rec-v\" style=\"color:#6F7A72\">11 m @ 0.74 % TREO<\/span><\/div><p class=\"rec-n\">From surface, at 27.7 % HREO.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>Surface work keeps pushing the system outward. Rock chips in 2024 ran to 3.22 % TREO and 0.75 % Nb\u2082O\u2085, and a December 2025 program 3 km south-east of the drilling returned niobium to <strong>6,649 ppm Nb\u2082O\u2085<\/strong>. Dysprosium oxide has been reported to 740 ppm inside high-grade intervals.<\/p>\r\n<p>Very little of it has been drilled. Soil geochemistry defines multiple parallel zones over 2.7 km, nothing has been drilled west of the main road, and the Machinga South and Lingoni radiometric anomalies are effectively untouched.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Terms<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>On completion, <strong>A$750,000 cash<\/strong> plus <strong>A$750,000 in shares<\/strong>, being 30 million at A$0.025 with 12 months of voluntary escrow.<\/li>\r\n<li>A further <strong>A$1.25 m cash<\/strong> within 12 months of completion.<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>A$1.25 m in performance shares<\/strong> converting only on a JORC-compliant resource of at least <strong>10 Mt at 0.65 % TREO<\/strong> within three years. The resource target is written into the deal, which is a useful read on what vendor and buyer both think is achievable.<\/li>\r\n<li>Completion needs MMRA approval of the licence transfers under Malawi's Mines and Minerals Act 2023.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h3>On the Bokan benchmark<\/h3>\r\n<p>Material circulating with the acquisition compares Machinga to <strong>Bokan-Dotson Ridge<\/strong> in Alaska, owned by Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV: UCU), on shared peralkaline geology. The geological comparison is warranted.<\/p>\r\n<p>Machinga's drilled grades of 0.6 to 1.4 % TREO sit above Bokan's resource grade, its mineralisation starts at surface where Bokan is contemplated underground, and Bokan has a defined resource where Machinga has none at all. Reading a peer's market capitalisation across to a pre-resource exploration licence is a rhetorical device rather than an analysis.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"note\">\r\n<p><strong>Technical sign-off.<\/strong> Exploration results from the 2026 Tundulu drilling are reviewed by <strong>Mark Mitchell<\/strong>, a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and an independent consultant to AuKing, as Competent Person. The historical results for Salambidwe, Ngala Hill and Karonga were reviewed by Ian Hodkinson, also AIG.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/section><section><h2>Catalysts<\/h2><h2>What could move next<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"headline\">\r\n<div class=\"flag\">Board approved, not yet drilled<\/div>\r\n<span class=\"num\">1,000 m<\/span>\r\n<p>On 15 September 2026 the AuKing board approved planning for a single diamond hole to roughly <strong>1,000 m<\/strong>, to test the system at significantly greater depth. It sits inside the current drilling budget rather than requiring new funding.<\/p>\r\n<p>For scale: that is nearly double <strong>26NH032<\/strong>, which stopped at 510.62 m with carbonatite still in the core, and it would be the deepest hole ever drilled at Tundulu by a factor of about seven against the 1988 JICA average of 50 m. No collar, no timing and no rig allocation have been published.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>Approximate and subject to change. Nothing here is a commitment by the company.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"tl\">\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>9 Oct 2026<\/b><p><strong>Mineralisation across multiple parts of Nathace Hill.<\/strong> 26NH001 returned 59 m @ 1.51 % TREO from 13 m on the western flank, 26NH006 47 m @ 1.50 % from 26 m to the north-east plus 9 m @ 1.53 % from 128 m, and 26NH030 36 m @ 1.50 % from 85 m to the south-west, outside the interpreted footprint. Sixteen of 31 RC holes have now reported. 2,242 samples assayed, 2,047 more at Intertek in Perth, and over 1,300 m of diamond core awaiting Malawi export permits. The 1,000 m hole collar is being planned inside the core area.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>21 Sep 2026<\/b><p><strong>Western step-out hits from surface.<\/strong> 26NH011 returned 72 m @ 1.51 % TREO from surface including 16 m @ 5.52 %, drilled away from Nathace Hill. Nine of 31 RC holes have now reported. Roughly 1,500 samples assayed, another 2,900 at Intertek in Perth or Zambia, and more than 1,300 m of diamond core in preparation.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"done\"><b>14 Sep 2026<\/b><p>First assays reported, from RC holes 26NH005, 26NH029, 26NH004 and 26NH014. Wide zones of high-grade mineralisation validating and in places exceeding the historical record, with the full per-metre dataset published.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"now\"><b>15 Sep 2026<\/b><p><strong>A 1,000 m diamond hole approved.<\/strong> The board signed off planning for a hole to roughly 1,000 m after the initial assays and the carbonatite-to-end-of-hole results in both diamond holes strengthened the interpretation of a substantial system. Within the existing budget. Planning stage: nothing drilled yet.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"now\"><b>Coming weeks<\/b><p>The rest of the RC program. 4,500 RC samples were taken in total and export permits for all of them are in hand. The diamond core is a separate queue: more than 1,300 m of it was still awaiting Malawi export permits as at 9 October. AuKing expects a steady flow of results.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Q4 2026<\/b><p>Assays from the diamond holes. 1,160.6 m has been cored across four holes, led by 26NH032 at 510.62 m and 26NH023 at 400.42 m. These will be the first grades from below the historical drilling floor, and AuKing has prioritised them. Given the RC results, finding significant mineralisation at 400 to 500 m would change the shape of the project.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Q4 2026<\/b><p>Two deep diamond holes planned to roughly 500 m to test depth continuity beneath Nathace Hill, Tundulu East and Kamilala Hill, alongside shallower surface holes and tails extending selected RC holes to about 150 m.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>19 Oct 2026<\/b><p>EGM in Brisbane: ratification of the July placement, service-contract shares and broker options.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Q4 2026<\/b><p>Completion of the Green Exploration acquisition. The binding condition is ASX confirming to <em>both<\/em> AuKing and Tusker that full quotation re-compliance under Chapter 11 is not required, plus MMRA approval of the licence transfers. This settles title to Tundulu as well as bringing in the other three licences.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>2027<\/b><p>First drilling at Salambidwe, which has never been drilled. AuKing plans to compile and validate the Globe and DY6 datasets, reprocess and invert the 2024 airborne survey, run a gap analysis, then map and sample ahead of maiden drill targets.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>2027<\/b><p>EM surveying at Ngala Hill, which has never had one, followed by the drilling that decides whether the A$500,000 in performance shares converts.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Late 2026<\/b><p>Metallurgical and mineralogical testwork on diamond core composites, the work that turns a grade into a potential product and a required input to the resource estimate.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Dec 2026 to Feb 2027<\/b><p>AuKing aims to finish the first 15,000 m of combined RC and diamond drilling by year end, then decides whether to extend or break for the southern Malawi wet season.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Late 2026<\/b><p>Machinga work program, funded from existing cash: integrate the historical drilling, soil and radiometric datasets with new drone magnetics and LiDAR to refine targets, then RC and diamond drilling on strike and depth extensions, the untested ground west and south of the drilled area, and the Machinga South and Lingoni anomalies. Subject to approvals, rig availability and the wet season.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Before end 2026<\/b><p><strong>Maiden JORC mineral resource estimate.<\/strong> The board has formally prioritised the work off the back of these assays, with metallurgical and mineralogical testwork on diamond core composites as a key input. Subject to sufficient drilling and assay data. This is the step that converts sixty years of historical data into something a valuation can stand on.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Ongoing<\/b><p>Transfer of EL 0731\/24 to Tundulu Rare Earths Ltd at the MMRA; remaining sample export permits.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"next\"><b>Nov 2026<\/b><p>External, not company-specific: China's scheduled review of its rare earth export licensing regime. The main swing factor for Dy, Tb and Ga pricing.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>How it got here<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"tl\">\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>1962<\/b><p>M.S. Garson maps the three nested igneous centres for the Geological Survey of Nyasaland. Still the standard reference.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>1970s<\/b><p>Geological Survey of Malawi drills Nathace Hill for phosphate, outlining a non-JORC ~900 kt @ 22 % P\u2082O\u2085 plus ~1 Mt of apatite s\u00f6vite above 10 % P\u2082O\u2085.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>1986\u201387<\/b><p>JICA and the Metal Mining Agency of Japan screen 30,000 km\u00b2 and 25 sectors. Tundulu is placed in the top tier of four, listed first, and is one of only three sectors anomalous in all fifteen carbonatite pathfinder elements. Phase 1 recommends drilling it.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>1987\u201388<\/b><p>JICA drills: 24 diamond holes for 1,204.8 m against a 50 m rig limit, 243 ore samples and 85 rock chips, 25 of them above 1 % TREO and peaking at 6.41 %. Tundulu gets the largest survey area of the three Chilwa sectors. Kangankunde is never drilled.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>1989<\/b><p>Consolidated report publishes a preliminary 0.6 Mt at 2.09 % REO and 0.5 Mt at 17.0 % P\u2082O\u2085 for Tundulu, comparing the grades with Bayan Obo and Arax\u00e1, and recommends further detailed drilling to grow the reserve.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>2014\u201315<\/b><p>Optichem \/ Mota-Engil JV drills 55 holes for 7,007 m and 10 trenches totalling 600 m, chasing phosphate. This is still the bulk of the modern dataset.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>2023\u201324<\/b><p>DY6 Metals compiles the historical database and runs reconnaissance sampling; SEM and XRD confirm synchysite and fluorapatite.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>Oct 2024<\/b><p>Trench TUTR10: 63 samples over 83 m to 3.35 % TREO and 27.5 % P\u2082O\u2085; a 120 kg composite at 1.88 % TREO and 9.07 % P\u2082O\u2085, with mercury, lead and cadmium below detection.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>2025<\/b><p>Auralia Metallurgy confirms a dual REE and phosphate flowsheet, recovering over 85 % of TREO and over 90 % of P\u2082O\u2085.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>Apr 2026<\/b><p>AuKing agrees to acquire 100 % of Tundulu.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>May\u2013Jun 2026<\/b><p>Thompson Resources contracted. Drone magnetics and LiDAR redraw the system as much larger than mapped. Maiden drilling starts, expanded from 10,000 m towards ~15,000 m across ~50 targets.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>Jul 2026<\/b><p>Carbonatite intersected across three of six interpreted complexes; A$5 m placement completed, oversubscribed; RC phase finishes at 4,300 m in 31 holes on 31 July.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>Aug 2026<\/b><p>First diamond hole to 510.6 m and second to 400.4 m, both extended past plan, both ending in carbonatite. Green Exploration acquisition agreed with Tusker Minerals.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"done\"><b>Sep 2026<\/b><p>Malawi export approval for drill samples; licence transfer to TREL progressing at the MMRA.<\/p><\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/section><p>General information only. Nothing here is investment, financial, legal or tax advice and does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs. Published by Bullseye Analytics, independent of AuKing Mining Limited, and compiled from public sources. Read the ASX announcements in full and seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before investing.<\/p><\/div><\/noscript>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunduluproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}