Mount Ridley Mines has officially fired up a phase one metallurgical test work program at the Winstons and Keiths prospects, which form part of its Grass Patch heavy rare earths project in Western Australia.
The critical minerals player has locked in leading Perth-based laboratory Nagrom to spearhead the campaign, which is set to test the company’s big regolith-hosted heavy rare earths element mineralisation.
Nagrom has been tasked with firing the first shot at representative mineralised clay samples pulled directly from the Winstons and Keiths prospects.
Mount Ridley says the lab work represents the first significant metallurgical program targeting its newly defined heavy rare earths, scandium and gallium mineralisation. The campaign follows hot on the heels of a maiden mineral resource estimate at both Winstons and Keiths.
Between the two prospects, they host a multi-element JORC inferred resource of 122.5 million tonnes grading 889 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides and features a premium basket of 44,610 tonnes of heavy rare earth oxides.
Additional inventories include a world-class gallium resource of 838.7Mt grading 29.3ppm and a hefty scandium hoard of 367.98Mt grading 57.3ppm.
The test work program was designed and is being led by Mount Ridley’s newly appointed technical advisor for processing and metallurgy, Chris Larder. Chris took up his role armed with deep industry experience in developing processing flowsheets and conducting metallurgical test work for multiple Western Australian rare earth and gallium systems.
Mount Ridley says earlier metallurgical work across the wider project had already examined the lighter rare earths mineralisation at its Mia prospect, however, the studies at Winstons and Keiths were limited to only preliminary baseline investigations.
The company’s new program takes an entirely different tack. It is designed to figure out the best way to identify, improve and extract the heavy rare earths, scandium and gallium from the clay-hosted mineralisation at both prospects, which are now the company’s main development focus.
The commencement of testwork at Nagrom is an important milestone for Mount Ridley. It is the first major metallurgical program we have undertaken since establishing our maiden resource estimates across the mafic derived Grass Patch Complex.
Mount Ridley says the program’s results will be integrated into its broader development initiatives, including work with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA.
Ultimately, Mount Ridley is aiming to develop a complete processing solution – a streamlined flowsheet capable of upgrading, extracting and cleanly separating all the valuable minerals within its rare earths, scandium and gallium mix.
While the company tackles the processing and commercialisation puzzle at Grass Patch, Mount Ridley also actively maintains gold, nickel and copper interests through its wholly owned Weld Range project in Western Australia, giving it exposure to large-scale mineral systems in a proven mining neighbourhood.
Next on the company’s radar at Grass Patch is a massive field-backed exploration push. The geos are busy prioritising multiple high-priority walk-up drill targets identified through historical drilling and geophysics. These will form the vanguard of Mount Ridley’s future exploration drilling programs slated to kick off later in 2026.
With a substantial resource footprint already locked away in the ground, Mount Ridley appears to be rapidly building out its downstream pathway.
If the lab techs can crack the code on the clay mineralogy over the coming months, this Western Australian explorer could quickly transition from just a big maiden resource story into a much more advanced critical minerals contender.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au