Red Metal’s Sybella project is a magnet rare earths giant

Red Metal has defined a giant maiden resource of 4.8Bt at 302ppm NdPr and 28ppm DyTb for its Sybella rare earths project
Resource starts from surface and remains open below 100m depth, meaning there’s potential to grow
Weathered granite at surface with resources of 788Mt at 297ppm NdPr and 28ppm DyTb offers early mining opportunities

Special Report: Red Metal’s maiden resource estimate for its Sybella project confirms what the company has believed in all along – that it is an absolutely massive magnet rare earths deposit.

Grade distribution and good continuity between individual holes and drill sections has allowed the company to define a giant inferred resource of just under 4.8Bt grading 302 parts per million neodymium/praseodymium (NdPr) and 28ppm dysprosium/terbium (DyTb).

Early metallurgical testing has found the high-value DyTb contributes about 21% of the magnet rare earth oxide basket value.

This resource is also easy to get to as it starts from surface and remains open below 100m depth, which means there’s potential for more mineralisation to be added to the already sizeable inventory.

What makes the resource even more attractive for Red Metal (ASX:RDM) is the early mining opportunity presented by the significant at surface resource of 788Mt at 297ppm NdPr and 28ppm DyTb contained within weathered granite.

The company plans to focus infill drilling at a 200m by 400m spacing in this area to define a higher confidence indicated resource.

Block model showing variation in NdPr block grade values. Pic: Red Metal

“We knew it was going to be big but this is way beyond our expectation,” RDM managing director Rob Rutherford said.

“This giant resource base will enable any future operation to be long-life and run at very significant economies of scale, lowering its unit mining and processing costs.

“Sybella is shaping up as a globally significant source of MREO minerals and has the potential to become a strategically sought after asset.

“We now have sufficient data to initiate early-stage mining studies and begin funding discussions with governments and potential end users.”

A unique project

Sybella is a unique, partially weathered and fresh REO-enriched granite that’s more than 12km long and 3km wide.

The newly estimated and very large resource, which is based on 1778 composite samples collected from 139 aircore and reverse circulation drill holes, starts at surface and features very few impurities. It also boasts positive leaching characteristics.

Early-stage drilling, metallurgical and comminution studies have indicated that a low-cost, low-capital, heap leach processing option may prove feasible.

Work has already succeeded in producing a mixed rare earth concentrate with 48.7% total rare earth oxides with valuable MREOs making up 39.5% of this product.

The project is also just 20km from Mt Isa in Queensland, enabling it to benefit from available infrastructure and a ready pool of skilled labour.

RDM notes the resource has potential to supply very large tonnages of near-surface heap leachable material for many years and enable any future operation to be run at a very large scale, which will lower its unit mining and processing costs.

Ongoing work

The company will now prioritise early-stage mining, metallurgical and infrastructure studies as well as start discussions with governments and potential end users about alternative funding options.

RDM plans to infill drill the shallower, higher-grade zones to the indicated category and has also initiated heritage surveying and site preparation.

Additionally, geometallurgical domaining of the Sybella mineralisation using multi-element assay data and geological logging has started while additional bottle roll and column leach tests using weak sulphuric acid over extended residence times are progressing.

This article was developed in collaboration with Red Metal, 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.