Everest Metals reports up to 91pc rubidium recovery using direct extraction

Everest Metals achieves 91% rubidium plus lithium by-products at Mt Edon
Company working with ECU’s Mineral Recovery Research Centre for direct extraction
Results will underpin ongoing discussions with international off-take customers and construction of a pilot scale plant in 2025

Special Report: Everest Metals has successfully produced its first rubidium product from the 3.6Mt Mt Edon project in WA, with laboratory testing achieving a recovery rate of up to 91%.

Rubidium is a critical material used in high-tech applications including multiple defence related applications, aerospace, medicine and fiber optic manufacturing. Rubidium is listed as one of 35 critical minerals by several countries around the globe including USA and Japan.

The industry expects to grow from US$4.46Bn in 2023 to US$7.2Bn by 2032 – and currently commands a price of ~USD1,200/kg or USD1.2m/ton.

Earlier this year the company and Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) Mineral Recovery Research Centre executed a research agreement for the extraction of rubidium from Mt Edon pegmatite.

The project focuses on extracting the rubidium from Mt Edon ore using direct extraction, by advanced processes such as ion exchange, which recycles water and is more environmentally compared to traditional processing methods.

The results from Phase 2 of the study have now demonstrated exceptional efficiency with 91% overall recovery of rubidium for synthesised brine – plus 92 g/t lithium was produced as the by-product.

Room for recovery improvement

The company says the results demonstrate ‘significant progress’ toward developing an economically viable and environmentally friendly extraction process, but that there’s even more room to improve, with further testing now underway to enhance purification and optimisation processes.

“We are moving swiftly to determine the most efficient and economically viable process to recover value from the Mt Edon critical mineral project,” Everest Metals (ASX:EMC) executive chairman and CEO Mark Caruso said.

“Our ongoing research and development efforts are focused on evaluating various production processes to determine optimal rubidium recovery and purity outcomes.

“The consistent repeatability of conversion under a variety of test conditions demonstrates the strength of our key design parameters, reinforcing our confidence that we will be able to produce high value rubidium components from Mt Edon material.

“We are pleased to report outstanding recovery rates of up to 91% rubidium, and extraction of lithium as a potential by-product underscoring the effectiveness of our company’s processes at Mt Edon.”

Looking ahead

To scale up the process technology, the plan now is to jointly apply with ECU for the Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Grants, Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage Program, Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA).

This will underpin the construction of a pilot scale plant in 2025.

EMC is also working to file an Australian provisional patent application to protect the intellectual property related to the process.

The company also plans to commence an engineering scoping study, which will consist of a high-level initial techno-economic analysis initiated for destruction process, focusing on both capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex).

A scoping study is also due for completion in Q2 2025.

This article was developed in collaboration with Everest Metals Corp, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.