Early metallurgical testing has been promising, indicating that 21 per cent of the project’s mineral basket value comes from the high-demand heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium and terbium. Heavy rare earths are really only mined in significant quantities out of China which would make Red Metal’s Sybella project something of an Australian trail blazer if it was able to also produce heavy rare earths at those levels.
The company also believes that Sybella’s granite-hosted deposit type, with a pH of 3.5, is unique for REO deposits and offers both high-value materials with low impurities and early-stage scalable mining opportunities though heap leaching of the soft weathered materials.
Just 20km from Mount Isa in Queensland, the project benefits from its proximity to established infrastructure, including access to power, water and labour.
And as the focus of the project moves towards an indicated resource category, Red Metal now has sufficient data to kick off advance studies on mining techniques, metallurgical processing and infrastructure.
Heritage surveys and infill drilling of the near surface high-grade material are scheduled, notwithstanding recent bushfires in the region which have temporarily delayed fieldwork.
The company has also begun funding discussions with governments and end-users to explore funding options, ensuring long-term investment viability.
The run up to the end of the year will be a busy one for Red Metal as it focuses on not only infill drilling at Sybella but also gets going on an early-stage drill campaign at its nearby Gidyea prospect, noteworthy for the prosect of a large-scale iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) breccia system, not dissimilar to Evolution Mining’s vast Ernest Henry copper-gold mine that is also in the region.
Similarly, a drill program is kicking off at Red Metal’s Lawn Hill silver-lead-zinc project, with $390,000 of funding from the Queensland government to test the significant large-scale base metals potential.
But for now it’s all about rare earths and Sybella.
The Sydney-based company now believes Sybella represents a potentially new rare earths deposit style for Australia – and possibly the world – with its rare earths hosted by partly weathered and fresh granite.
Traditional sources of rare earths are usually found in either a hard rock carbonatite setting or in clays and Red Metal says its Sybella project is somewhere in between. It says Sybella could potentially be as easy to mine as clays, but without the clay – the very thing that makes mining clay-based rare earths a little difficult.
When it comes to rare earths metallurgy (and not necessarily grade) is King and Red Metal says early testing has shown some exceptional outcomes.
According to the company the coarsely crushed granites are classifying as “Very Soft” when weathered and “Soft” when fresh which should translate into very competitive capital and operating costs for both mining and crushing of the product - and at 4.8b tonnes Red Metal has a lot of product and is well placed to ride the next lithium/rare earths wave when it comes.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au