Tharsis Dysprosium Dykes

On the eastern flank of the Tharsis rise, ancient volcanic plumbing left behind a swarm of carbonatite dykes, narrow sheets of carbonate-rich igneous rock famous for concentrating rare earths. They do not crop out; the shallowest sits about 200 metres down and the deepest drilled intercept is at 1,100 metres.

The Guild's Tharsis camp located them in 2184 with the Thumper Seismic Mapper, whose reflection profiles showed nineteen steep, high-velocity sheets cutting the basalt pile. Corehound Deep Core Drill holes then hit three of them. Core assays average 310 g/t dysprosium, 48 g/t terbium and 2,400 g/t neodymium across true widths of 4 to 11 metres, which makes this the heavy-rare-earth deposit everyone in the magnet trade is watching.

A preliminary resource of 64 million tonnes has been modelled from the Tharsis Seismic Volume and six cored holes. The exploration licence is still pending with Martian authorities, so no claim number has been issued and no development may begin. Field work continues under a survey permit, and apprentice crews trained by Wiremu Tane log every metre of core on site.