Mount Ridley unveils world-class scandium haul at Esperance

Mount Ridley Mines has taken another decisive step towards establishing itself as a globally relevant critical minerals player after unveiling a maiden scandium mineral resource at its flagship Mount Ridley project near Esperance in Western Australia.

The company posted an inferred scandium resource of 367.98 million tonnes grading 57.3 parts per million (ppm) scandium, equivalent to 18,855 tonnes of contained scandium metal. The new resource positions the project among the largest publicly reported JORC-compliant scandium deposits in the world.

Mineralisation spans multiple blocks within the renowned Grass Patch Complex, including the Central Scandium zone, which hosts Blocks 1A and 1B, and the Northern Scandium zone, which hosts Block 2. All parts of the resource sit along the same geological corridor that already hosts Mount Ridley’s gallium and rare earth mineralisation.

Notably, Mount Ridley says the scandium mineralisation tends to be closely aligned with gallium and heavy rare earth elements, reinforcing the project’s growing reputation as a large-scale, multi-element critical minerals system rather than a single-commodity story.

Block 1A and 1B host an inferred resource of 155.2Mt at 57.8ppm scandium, while Block 2 adds a further 212.7Mt at 54.7ppm scandium. All blocks remain open for expansion and have been prioritised for future resource definition drilling.

The company believes the co-hosted nature of scandium, gallium and heavy rare earths within the same regolith could be an ace up its sleeve. If the metals can be extracted using a single integrated processing route, it could slash development costs and sweeten the economics, turning what might have been a tricky specialty metals play into a far more streamlined, value-packed development story.

Scandium is a small but strategically important market, used in aerospace, defence and advanced manufacturing applications. The metal is prized for its ability to significantly improve the strength, corrosion resistance and heat tolerance of aluminium alloys. Global supply has become increasingly tight amid Chinese export restrictions, with only a handful of producers worldwide and no dominant Western source.

For Mount Ridley, the scandium resource builds directly onto the project’s already substantial critical minerals inventory. In October last year, the company reported a maiden gallium resource of 838.7Mt at 29.3ppm, equivalent to 24,584 tonnes of contained metal, making it one of the largest known gallium deposits worldwide.

Add in a previously defined 168Mt rare earths resource at the company’s Mia prospect, which is rich in magnet rare earths such as neodymium and praseodymium and the whole portfolio suddenly bulks up in a big way.

In total, Mount Ridley is now sitting on a sprawling mineralised system that stretches for more than 25 kilometres along the Grass Patch complex, hinting at a genuine district-scale critical minerals potential.

More than 75 per cent of Mount Ridley’s tenure remains untested, with multiple defined target corridors yet to be drill tested, giving the company significant scope to grow and upgrade its resource base.

Beyond the rocks, Mount Ridley has also been laying the groundwork for longer-term value creation. Late last year, the company executed a Material Transfer Agreement with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, allowing material from the project to be used for advanced analysis and test work.

The agreement reflects growing interest from Western countries in securing diversified, non-Chinese sources of critical minerals used in defence and high-technology supply chains.

With a giant scandium resource now on the books, a world-scale gallium inventory and magnet rare earths already defined at Mia, Mount Ridley is fast shaping as one of Australia’s most intriguing multi-commodity critical minerals stories.

If ongoing drilling continues to add tonnes and metallurgy proves the elements can be unlocked together, the Mount Ridley project could evolve from an exploration play into a strategically important supply hub for Western high-tech and defence industries.

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