Mount Ridley secures entire Grass Patch just weeks after maiden gallium resource

• Mount Ridley expands WA project to 1069km2 after maiden 838.7Mt gallium resource
• New licences consolidate three blocks into single holding across Grass Patch Complex
• Just 20% of prospective ground tested to date; further exploration planned to boost resources

Special Report: Mount Ridley Mines has expanded the footprint of its namesake critical minerals project north of Esperance in WA just weeks after defining a maiden gallium resource.

The new exploration licences consolidate all three blocks that make up the Mount Ridley project into a single, contiguous holding that hosts the entirety of the highly prospective Grass Patch Complex, which is about 68km long and 12.5km wide.

Grass Patch is a distinctive geological domain within the region defined by a pronounced gravity and magnetic high, interpreted to reflect mafic intrusions.

These intrusions are interpreted by Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) to be the primary source of gallium and heavy rare earth enrichment within the overlying regolith.

Its unique geological and geophysical character distinguishes the company’s ground from the surrounding granitoid and gneissic terranes and highlights its potential for further critical minerals discovery.

In late October 2025, the company pencilled in a maiden inferred resource of 838.7Mt grading 29.3ppm gallium for the Mount Ridley project.

This is expected to be a valuable, secondary mineral of economic interest at the project, which is better known for its heavy rare earths mineralisation.

Despite this, the Grass Patch Complex remains underexplored for gallium, scandium and HREE as most historical work focused on finding base metals.

“This strategic expansion cements Mount Ridley’s dominant position across the Grass Patch Complex, a geological domain that continues to reveal exceptional critical mineral potential, which, to date, includes gallium and heavy rare earths,” MRD CEO Allister Caird said.

“With most of the area yet to see any modern drilling, we are positioned to unlock substantial new growth beyond the existing resources across Blocks 1, 2 and 3.”

Room to explore

The new licences extend the company’s ground position by a further 31km southwest of Block 1 and 15.6km northeast of Block 2, both of which host gallium resources and feature drilling that returned significant HREE mineralisation.

They also take the company’s total tenure to 1069km2.

The new licences enable strategic step-out drilling aimed at expanding existing resource boundaries while allowing the company to evaluate new priority targets defined by a geophysical data review that is expected to be completed later this month.

To date, just 20% of the Grass Patch Complex has been tested, predominantly by shallow aircore drilling targeting the clay profile.

MRD says this leaves substantial potential to identify additional mineralised zones through deeper and more systematic drilling campaigns.

Forward plan

As well as the data review across the Grass Patch Complex aimed at refining geological interpretations and identifying new target areas, MRD will also re-assay existing pulps to further define the distribution of gallium, REEs and other critical minerals within key mineralised zones.

Other work includes the evaluation of scandium resource potential across priority mineralised areas to support future resource definition and assessing HREE resource potential across Blocks 1 and 2.

The company will then prioritise step-out drill targets to enable future resource expansion and continued project growth.

This article was developed in collaboration with Mount Ridley Mines, 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.