Mount Ridley reveals fresh scandium upside in WA

Mount Ridley Mines has confirmed its Block 1 scandium resource near Esperance in Western Australia extends in all directions after a second round of re-assays on historical drill pulps returned a picnic basket of high-grade, shallow hits.

The latest results, which include a 22-metre intersection grading 134.09 parts per million(ppm) scandium oxide from just 33m downhole, follow hot on the heels of the company’s recent revelation of a massive 13km-long untested strike corridor to the south-west of the same resource.

Mount Ridley’s capital-light strategy of re-assaying its extensive historical drilling database - most of which focused on nickel and copper before the significance of critical minerals such as scandium was widely understood - appears to be paying dividends.

This second tranche of results from the phase one re-assay program saw 481 historical air core pulp samples from the Grass Patch project put under the microscope. The work has confirmed high-grade scandium mineralisation along every margin of the existing 155.2-million-tonne Block 1A and 1B resource.

Other significant intercepts from the latest work include a 20-metre hit at 119.02ppm scandium oxide from a shallow 18m, 13m going 117.34ppm from 13m and a solid 18-metre section grading 104.68ppm from only 9m.

Notably, many of the new broad and high-grade intercepts sit immediately outside the current resource shell and deliver grades well above the Block 1 average of 91.8ppm scandium oxide. Several of the holes also ended in mineralisation, suggesting the deposit is still open at depth.

Following our 11 June announcement, which identified a new scandium zone and 13 kilometres of untested strike to the southwest of Block 1, this next tranche of phase one re-assays has turned our focus back to the Block 1 resource itself. Results confirm the mineralised system extends beyond the current resource boundary on every side.

The existing JORC-inferred scandium resource at Grass Patch is already a monster, standing at 367.98 million tonnes (Mt) grading 57.3ppm scandium. This is in addition to its hefty 122.5Mt resource grading 889ppm total rare earth oxide and its eye watering 838.7Mt resource running at 39.5ppm gallium oxide.

The company’s timing looks to be on the money. Scandium is classified as a critical mineral by Australia, the United States and the European Union, with global supply under pressure after China imposed mandatory export licensing in April last year.

With demand for the lightweight, high-strength metal forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 14.5 per cent through to 2031, any new large-scale sources from allied nations such as Australia are almost certainly going to be warmly welcomed.

With another 14,000 historical drill pulps still in the shed and a new 13-kilometre-long corridor screaming out for attention, Mount Ridley has given itself a cost-effective path to potentially expand its already significant resource. Additionally, its Weld Range project, 65 kilometres northwest of Cue, gives the company exposure to gold and copper opportunities.

The first set of re-assays showed there was blue sky to the south-west. This latest batch now suggests the Block 1 deposit could also be far bigger than first thought.

With soon-to-be-released Block 2 assay results now undergoing internal review, it seems this story may still have many more chapters left to run.

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