Red Metal Limited (ASX:RDM)

Red Metal Limited announced strong fresh granite column leach test results from the Kary Zone at its Sybella Rare Earth Project near Mount Isa, confirming heap leach potential to depth for the project’s largest ore type. The fresh granite 2-metre column leach test on representative multi-hole, large-area composite diamond core crushed to -10 mm achieved 65% neodymium and 68% praseodymium extraction with total sulphuric acid consumption of 19 kg/t, materially lower than the saprock and transitional ores, and with low aluminium and iron impurity extraction. Fresh granite comprises 598 Mt of the 936 Mt Kary Zone Inferred Mineral Resource at a 300 ppm NdPr cut-off to 100 metres depth, with the broader Kary Zone resource comprising 182 Mt of saprock, 157 Mt of transitional material and 598 Mt of fresh granite, and mineralisation remaining open at depth with drilling intersecting mineralisation to 240 metres. While the fresh granite leach cycle took longer, reaching terminal extraction after about 200 days, around half of total extraction was achieved within 30 days, and the lower acid demand is considered a potentially important economic benefit for the ongoing Sybella Pre-Feasibility Study, which is targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2027; the company also noted all three Kary Zone ore types have now returned positive ambient-temperature heap leach results and further work is underway on coarser crush sizes, taller columns, purification, geotechnical studies and infill and extension drilling.