Red Metal believes the target also has large-scale mineralisation potential using the analogue of a giant Century-style silver-lead-zinc deposit.

The Century zinc deposit was a huge sediment-hosted and predominantly zinc deposit that ran at nearly 10 per cent zinc. It went on to become Australia’s biggest open cut zinc mine located outside of Lawn Hill, 250km north-west of Mount Isa.

Mining kicked-off in 1999 and continued until 2015, producing a pit some 2.5km in length in the neighbouring region to Red Metals’ target of the same name.

And last but not least, a low-cost infill drilling program to unlock the massive resource potential at Red Metal’s flagship Sybella rare earth project near Mount Isa will kick off next month. The company recently uncovered an 8km-by-3km rare earths zone at Sybella that featured strong shows for all four magnet rare earths –neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.

Within the massive discovery were two high-grade zones management plans to target with its upcoming infill drilling. The highest-grade Eastern zone extends for more than 4.8km along strike and has a width of up to 1.5km, with the second 7.2km-long Western zone comprising widths that vary from 400m to more than 1.6km.

It is a huge area of resource potential that could push out of the millions and into the billions of tonnes. The upcoming resource definition drilling will also facilitate ongoing metallurgical work, accelerating the pathway towards the mining studies and discussions with potential end-users.

The company says the granite-hosted soft ore that appears to be abundant in its ground can offer simple crushing and processing options that are expected to provide an economic edge to the project. Scale and metallurgy to date suggests Sybella could be a heap leach-viable mining option – a proven, highly-viable large-scale mining technique that is expected to support a low-capex start-up and low-operating cost pathway.

Red Metal has not been shy in past months in describing its promising project as both “globally unique” and a “metallurgical nirvana”, believing rare earths extraction is “all about the ore”.

With drilling at three projects set to begin imminently, the company is entering a key period of its development. And its commitment to unlocking the huge resource potential at Sybella, alongside the base-metal upside at Gidyea and Lawn Hill, could well be rewarded with substantial returns from each operation.

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