In a significant development for Australia's critical minerals sector, Red Metal Ltd has announced a major metallurgical breakthrough at its Sybella rare earths project in Queensland that promises to transform processing efficiency and reduce costs.
Innovative Ion Exchange Process
The company has successfully replaced the standard two-stage impurity removal process with a simple ion exchange method that delivers higher purity products while lowering operational expenses. This technological advancement represents a substantial step forward for the emerging rare earths producer.
Ion exchange plants are commonly utilised in primary metal recovery for uranium, nickel and cobalt operations, as well as water purification applications. The adaptation of this technology for rare earths processing at Sybella demonstrates Red Metal's innovative approach to metallurgical challenges.
Multiple Advantages for Sybella Project
The new process offers numerous benefits including the production of significantly higher purity mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC), materially reduced alkali costs, simplified flowsheet complexity, and substantially lower operating and capital costs for both impurity removal and MREC precipitation.
Red Metal highlights that Sybella's soft ore characteristics provide additional advantages, beginning with free-digging conditions for the first 10 metres of depth. The ore requires relatively simple crushing processes that save time and reduce processing costs through the use of low-acid solutions.
The Sybella deposit spans an impressive 12-kilometre-long by 3-kilometre-wide granite-pervasive area featuring ore that responds well to straightforward low-temperature processing. Management indicates this likely translates to a low-capital expenditure operation.
Testing Confirms Processing Potential
Recent intermittent bottle-roll tests conducted on reverse-circulation drill chips from both weathered and fresh granite have demonstrated the ore's suitability for heap leach processing operations. These tests have confirmed metal recovery rates and chemical consumption parameters within hydrometallurgical processes.
The company is currently conducting additional impurity removal trials and column leach tests aimed at further improving metal recoveries and validating the bottle-roll test results. This comprehensive testing approach allows Red Metal to thoroughly understand processing and extraction potential before committing to expensive drilling programs.
A recently completed step-out drilling program tested an 8km-by-3km area to prove grade continuity, involving 120 holes drilled across 8,171 metres. The program uncovered two high-grade mineralisation zones, each approximately one kilometre wide, with potential for substantial tonnage accumulation.
Once assay results are returned, the company plans to commence infill drilling to upgrade resources to mineral resource status and progress toward a mining study.
Western Australian Operations and Financial Position
Meanwhile, in Western Australia, Red Metal is aggressively advancing two separate high-impact exploration fronts in the Pilbara region at its Pulkarrimarra and Pardoo copper-gold projects. This expanded activity is supported by a substantial $2.5 million cash injection secured through the exercise of unlisted options preceding the latest quarterly report.
The company successfully completed a capital raise during September and October, with over 20 million options exercised, positioning Red Metal strongly to pursue its WA copper-gold targets.
Boardroom confidence is evident with Directors Russell Barwick and Robert Rutherford personally exercising over one million options at $0.13 per share on October 29, significantly increasing their direct shareholdings. Rutherford's total shareholding now exceeds 14.9 million shares.
At the Pulkarrimarra project in the Paterson province, the company is currently extracting core samples from the high-priority YE02 gold target, situated along strike from Rio Tinto's Winu discovery. Geological assessment indicates a large, high-resistivity feature reflecting potential gold-copper mineralisation similar to Winu.
The second major Pilbara campaign at the Pardoo project is testing separate magnetic targets within the highly prospective Hemi structural corridor. Red Metal has completed its initial reverse-circulation drill program on two proof-of-concept targets, with drill chips now logged and sampled.
Strategic Assets and Future Plans
Red Metal maintains a significant strategic asset through its 35.8 per cent holding in Maronan Metals, which recently released a robust Preliminary Economic Assessment on its shallow Starter Zone. Maronan controls two 30-million-tonne ore bodies near Cloncurry in Queensland.
Red Metal's 88.5 million shares in Maronan Metals, trading at $0.31 per share in late October, represent an investment valued at approximately $27.4 million, providing a substantial liquid asset that underpins the explorer's valuation.
The company is systematically advancing its Sybella rare earths project toward a scoping study planned for 2026. This represents a clear, disciplined path to production rather than a distraction from core operations.
Advanced comminution studies and the innovative ion exchange resin tests aim to define a low-capital cost, low-operating cost heap leach processing option. Large column leach test work is scheduled to commence in mid-November 2025, with results expected in the new year.
