Mount Ridley opens 13km scandium growth runway in WA

Mount Ridley Mines has unveiled a significant new high-grade scandium zone at its Grass Patch project near Esperance in Western Australia. Savvy capital-light re-assay of historical drill pulps has unearthed a massive 13-kilometre-long untested strike corridor.

The results from the first phase of the program confirmed significant scandium mineralisation well outside of the company’s established mineral resource estimates at its Block 1 and Block 2 prospects.

The existing JORC-inferred scandium resource at Grass Patch is already a monster, standing at 367.98 million tonnes grading 57.3 parts per million (ppm) scandium. It is split across Block 1, which holds 155.2Mt at 57.8ppm scandium, and Block 2 with 212.7Mt at 54.7ppm scandium.

A cluster of holes at the southwestern margin of the project returned near surface intercepts with grades materially exceeding the current Block 1 resource average of 91.8ppm scandium oxide, defining the untested zone between the existing Block 1 resource boundary and the new mineralised cluster.

The standout result from the re-assay program was a 9-metre hit grading a solid 152.89ppm scandium oxide from just 9m downhole. Other impressive results included a 13-metre section going 137.61ppm scandium oxide from a shallow 6m depth, an 18-metre strike at 114.38ppm from 7m and a thicker 20-metre intercept grading 116.39ppm from 15m.

Perhaps most tellingly, the highest-grade intercepts are all concentrated at the southwestern end of the drilling corridor. Management says this suggests the mineralisation intensity does not fall away with distance from the known Block 1 resource and may, in fact, strengthen to the south.

The Grass Patch complex extends well beyond what we currently have defined. The grades at the southwestern end are above our existing resource average and sit at the far end of a 13-kilometre corridor that has not yet been touched by the drill bit.

Mount Ridley says the re-assay program was designed to squeeze additional value from its extensive historical drilling database, which comprises more than 70,000m of drilling. Significantly, most of this work was done before scandium was widely recognised as a critical mineral, meaning a substantial number of the samples had never been assayed for the valuable mineral.

Interestingly, the company has another 14,000 historical drill pulps in the shed ready for re-assay, suggesting there is still a substantial pipeline of resource-defining work lying ahead.

The timing looks to be just right, with scandium now classified as a critical mineral by Australia, the US and the European Union. Global supply is also under pressure after China imposed mandatory export licensing in April last year, a move that has tightened availability.

To add to the supply problem, demand for scandium is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of about 14.5 per cent through to 2031, so any new sources from allied nations such as Australia are likely to be thoroughly welcomed by eager Western buyers.

With the company’s Grass Patch project already hosting a significant multi-element deposit, Mount Ridley also holds the Weld Range project in WA, which is considered prospective for iron ore and gold.

With grades now appearing to get stronger to the south at Grass Patch and a 13km stretch of ground that has never seen a drill bit, Mount Ridley has just given itself a clear path to potentially expand its already significant resource base. And with another 14,000 historical samples waiting to hit the assay lab, one gets the feeling this story might just have a few more chapters to run.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au