American Rare Earths Expands La Paz Project Focus to Gold, Silver, Copper

Mark Wall, the chief executive of American Rare Earths, made it official on March 24: the company's more than 3,000-hectare La Paz Project in La Paz County is no longer purely a rare earth story.

American Rare Earths engaged an experienced US-based exploration and geoscience consultancy to undertake a comprehensive review of historical data and to design a targeted follow-up work program focused on gold, silver, copper and other non-rare earth critical minerals prospectivity at the La Paz Project. The move adds manganese to that target list as well, with the company launching a comprehensive review of gold, silver, copper and manganese potential alongside its established rare earths focus.

The La Paz Project covers a large, contiguous land package of unpatented federal lode claims covering approximately 2,779 hectares and 6,866 acres, and a state mineral lease covering approximately 260 hectares and 640 acres, in an established mining jurisdiction where historic activities have included precious and base metal production. That adds up to just over 3,039 hectares of ground that, until now, exploration teams had primarily combed for rare earth elements.

Wall framed the decision as a deliberate pivot toward the land's deeper history. "The La Paz Project sits in a region with a long history of gold, silver, and copper mining, yet much of the modern exploration work has understandably focused on rare earth elements," he said, adding that bringing in a seasoned US geoscience team would allow the company "to take a fresh, multi-commodity look at the data" to unlock additional value from the land package.

The review will consolidate and reinterpret historical geological mapping, drilling data, geochemistry and geophysics to identify previously overlooked or underexplored mineralisation. That work will include re-evaluating multi-element geochemical datasets for pathfinder signatures tied to gold, silver and copper systems, as well as reviewing magnetic and radiometric geophysical surveys to pinpoint structural controls. The outcome of this phase will be a ranked inventory of gold, silver, copper and other critical mineral targets within the broader La Paz tenure, supported by updated geological interpretations and modern geoscientific workflows.

Based on the results of the data review and targeting exercise, American Rare Earths might implement a focused 2026 exploration program to systematically test the most compelling precious and base metal opportunities. Potential follow-up work may include detailed geological and structural mapping over priority areas, ground-based geochemical surveys using soil grids, rock chip sampling and channel sampling to validate historical anomalies for gold, silver, copper and manganese, and selective ground geophysics such as induced polarization or resistivity for sulphide-rich systems and detailed magnetics for structural and intrusive features.

Crucially, the company is not walking away from the rare earth work that has defined La Paz for years. The company will prioritize work programs that can be efficiently integrated with, or run parallel to, ongoing REE-related activities, leveraging existing access, infrastructure and geological knowledge at La Paz.

The La Paz Project is located in La Paz County, Arizona, approximately 170 kilometers northwest of Phoenix. The announcement came one day after American Rare Earths was dropped from the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index on March 22, and shares responded sharply to the news, with the company engaging the consultancy to conduct the review and design a targeted follow-up work program focused on gold, silver and copper prospectivity at the Arizona project. MarketScreener reported shares surged 8 percent on the announcement, with the stock trading at 0.3350 AUD and showing an intraday gain of 9.84 percent when the Australian market closed.

Wall said any success in identifying new gold, silver, copper or manganese targets "would add an exciting dimension to La Paz and to our broader US growth strategy.