Red Metal is also conducting impurity removal trials and column leach tests to improve metal recoveries and to confirm the bottle-roll tests. Management believes completing its varied metallurgical testing on the ore allows it to better understand the potential for processing and extraction prior to engaging in expensive drilling programs.

The recent tests followed the company’s methodology and with what it now believes are “excellent” results, a step-out drilling program to expand the mineralisation outside the known boundaries has been completed. An 8km-by-3km area was tested to prove continuity of grade, with 120 holes drilled for 8171m.

Two zones of high-grade mineralisation, each about 1km wide, were unearthed and have the potential for massive tonnage. Once results from the submitted assays are returned, the company will complete infill drilling to upgrade to a mineral resource and hammer out a mining study.

Red Metal recently revealed that tests conducted by rare earths metallurgical specialists ANSTO Minerals had validated its breakthrough leach results using chip samples from Sybella. The company says ANSTO’s supplementary findings back up its phase one testwork – which was completed by Core Resources and revealed in February – that showed high recoveries and low impurities using low levels of acid consumption for both valuable magnet and heavy rare earth oxides.

ANSTO Minerals is an arm of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation – a statutory agency that reports to the Federal Parliament. It ran similar bottle-roll leach tests to the ones carried out by Core, using the coarse non-pulverised RC chip samples.

Red Metal has other assets, including a 44 per cent stake in its “spun-out” former lead-silver project, now operated by Maronan Metals. Maronan has a pair of 30 million-tonne ore bodies on its hands from that project to keep it busy.

But on its own doorstep, Red Metal appears to have a metallurgically-unique project that may eventually propel the company into its own state of nirvana.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au