Red Metal kicks off Sybella rare earths study

Red Metal has fired the starter’s gun on a pre-feasibility study for its Sybella rare earths project in north-west Queensland, a move designed to put some hard economic numbers around what it describes as a globally significant, large-tonnage discovery.

The company has engaged a trio of Queensland-based resource consultants in DRA Global, AMDAD and The Core Group to design, cost and optimise a potential mining and processing operation at the project, located just 20 kilometres south-west of the mining hub of Mount Isa.

The study marks a crucial milestone for Red Metal as it looks to fast-track a project of truly mammoth proportions. The mineralisation is hosted in a unique granite ore body that covers a vast area of 7 kilometres by 3 kilometres and carries a JORC-compliant exploration target of between 2.4 and 4.9 billion tonnes.

Within that broader system, the company has zeroed in on the higher-grade Kary Zone for the study. At a 300 parts per million neodymium-praseodymium cut-off, Red Metal has defined a colossal resource of 936 million tonnes to a depth of 100 metres. 

The resource is comprised of 182 million tonnes of easily accessible saprock from surface, 157 million tonnes of transitional ore and a deeper 598 million tonnes of fresh granite.

Geologically, the deposit looks to be purpose-built for a low-cost operation. The host granite is non-acid consuming and low in clay, making it an ideal candidate for heap leaching. This simple processing method is more commonly associated with bulk gold or copper mining. 

Red Metal says that after extensive metallurgical work, its tests have shown a weak sulphuric acid solution at ambient temperatures can successfully free the rare earths, producing a high-quality mixed rare earth carbonate product.

The pre-feasibility study will model a base-case throughput of 20 million tonnes of ore per year, with options to scale down to 10 million or up to a massive 25 million tonnes per annum. 

Key trade-off studies will include assessing the merits of building an on-site acid plant versus buying acid on the open market, and the viability of a downstream processing step to separate the final product into individual rare earth oxides.

While Sybella is clearly the company’s flagship, Red Metal is no one-trick pony. The company holds a host of projects across Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia targeting a diverse range of commodities.

In Queensland, Red Metal’s Gulf project is chasing giant iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) systems where a standout target flaunts a gravity signature comparable in size to BHP’s behemoth Oak Dam discovery. 

Also in the Sunshine State, its Three Ways project is targeting Mount Isa-style sedimentary-hosted copper with drilling planned for a 1.7km-long anomaly.

Over in the Northern Territory, the Brunette Downs project is targeting giant sediment-hosted base metal deposits across a huge tenement package.  And in South Australia, the Pernatty Lagoon and Callabonna projects are chasing sediment-hosted copper, while in Western Australia, the company’s Pardoo project is being explored for nickel-copper sulphides and gold with Pulkarrimarra targeting IOCG-style copper-gold mineralisation.

The launch of the Sybella pre-feasibility study is a key milestone for Red Metal. It’s the first robust economic assessment of a project boasting a scale that could make it a globally relevant source of rare earths. 

The company says the study will provide the hard data it needs to advance offtake discussions with potential partners and may open the door for funding support from Federal and State governments, both scrambling to secure domestic critical minerals supply chains. 

With results from the study anticipated towards the end of this year or early next year, Red Metal is now on a clear path to find out if its giant geological curiosity can be turned into a producing rare earths mine right in Queensland’s industrial heartland.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au