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Red Metal Ltd says it has made a major breakthrough in metallurgical testing of its rare earths ore from the company's Sybella project in Queensland that will result in less impurities and higher grades. The company has managed to replace the standard two-stage impurity removal process with a simple Ion exchange process that will lower costs and increase purities.

There are moments when policy collides with geology, and when it does, fortunes can shift overnight. The decision by the US Department of Defence, announced last week, to take a half-billion-dollar equity stake in the country's only producing rare earths mine has thrust the geopolitical spotlight onto a handful of ASX-listed juniors and reshaped their prospects in a flash.

Red Metal is poised to unlock the vast mineral potential of its Queensland copper-gold projects, thanks to $400,000 in collaborative drilling grants from the Queensland Government. The funds are set to spearhead the company's proof-of-concept drilling at two highly prospective iron oxide-copper-gold projects at its Gulf and Three Ways prospects.

Red Metal Ltd's Sybella project in Queensland is shaping up as a low-cost heap leach play as leach tests show up to 81% magnetic rare earth oxide recoveries with low iron impurities using only weak acid levels. Bottle roll tests revealed a pH sweet spot between 2.0 and 2.5, where high recoveries of magnet rare earth oxides including the lucrative elements neodymium and praseodymium could be recovered using room-temperature sulphuric acid.

Red Metal's first scout diamond drill hole at its Bluebush silver-lead-zinc prospect in northwest Queensland has delivered 73m at 9g/t silver, including a 12m hit at 19g/t silver. The runs include base metal hits, with the 73m interval assaying 990ppm lead and 256ppm zinc from 301m and the 12m assaying 2446ppm lead and 780ppm zinc from 362m.

Red Metal's latest infill drilling program has unearthed thick intersections of valuable magnet rare earths at the Kary zone within the company's Sybella project, 20km from the Queensland mining town of Mount Isa. Multiple long intervals up to 162m thick containing the four magnet metals were encountered from surface or shallow depths from the infill drilling, with many holes ending in mineralisation.

Red Metal has been knocked over by punters in the rush for shares after its latest share purchase plan received applications totalling $6.6 million blowing an initial target of $2 million out of the water. The company's exploration plans at its Sybella rare earths project in Queensland and drill programs at its other prospective targets are now fully-funded for the next year.

Red Metal Ltd says its giant 4.8 billion-tonne rare earths deposit at its Sybella project near Mt Isa in QLD is a globally significant discovery. In revealing its maiden inferred mineral resource estimate, the company also pointed to a shallow section of the deposit at surface that is weathered granite and therefore potentially amenable to low-cost heap-leach processing.

Red Metal is gearing up for an intense period of exploration across north-west Queensland, with separate drilling programs set to kick off at three of its projects in the coming month. Initial investigative drill campaigns at the company's Gidyea copper-gold and Lawn Hill silver-lead-zinc projects will be launched to test their significant base metals potential, followed by infill drilling at its Sybella rare earths play.

Red Metal says its latest step-out drill program has confirmed two huge, parallel magnet rare earths zones at its Sybella project near Mount Isa in Queensland, highlighting the impressive resource potential at the site. The company's latest assays featured strong shows for all four magnet rare earths –neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium – and infill drilling is now a key priority.

Red Metal has produced what it says could be a premium saleable rare earths product after its first impurity removal trial using ore from its globally-unique Sybella rare earths project near Mount Isa in Queensland. The company says its low-impurity, magnet rare earth oxides-dominant product is another proof-of-concept step towards Sybella becoming a significant, low-cost rare earths mining operation.

Red Metal's metallurgical testwork has given a green light to the rare earths at its Sybella play near Mount Isa in Queensland, with bulk mining and a low-cost heap leach process to lead to a potential mining operation. The company says granite-hosted soft ore that appears to be abundant in its ground, offers simple crushing and processing options that provide an economic edge to the project.

Red Metal has delivered a boost to its Sybella rare earths discovery in Queensland, with metallurgical testwork enhancing the prospects of a low-cost and low-capital heap leach processing operation. Management believes the results could pave the way for a process route that lifts revenue and lowers processing costs in a future mine at the project.

Aspiring rare earths developer Red Metal is aiming to stretch its “world-first” Sybella discovery with a new drilling program outside the known mineralisation zone at its project about 20km south-west of Mt Isa in North Queensland. The company is looking to define the potential size of the deposit and its grade, with plans to drill 10,000m using a combination of air-core and percussion drilling.

Tests conducted by rare earths metallurgical specialists ANSTO Minerals have validated Red Metal's breakthrough leach results using chip samples from its new Sybella discovery near Mt Isa in North Queensland. Red Metal says ANSTO's supplementary findings back up its phase-one testwork that showed high recoveries and low impurities using low levels of acid consumption for both valuable magnet and heavy rare earth oxides.

Red Metal Ltd's “metallurgy-first” approach to defining the potential of its unusual rare earths discovery in Queensland has paid early dividends, with tests showing extraction levels of up to 90 per cent on two key elements. Its Sybella project represents a potentially new deposit style for Australia – and possibly the world – with its rare earths hosted by partly weathered and fresh granite extending through a 12km-by-3km area.