Highlights

  • Hydrochloric acid leach tests at 60°C extract up to 99.1% lithium, 98.7% strontium and 97.0% magnesium from Red Mountain material in Nevada.
  • Results outperform prior sulphuric acid tests that left 92% of strontium in the residue, suggesting a single-pass multi-product flowsheet.
  • Red Mountain holds an Inferred resource of 500Mt at 1,139 ppm lithium, 0.53% strontium carbonate equivalent and 2.4% magnesium at a 700 ppm cut-off.
  • A Scoping Study is targeted for Q1 2027; the company flags an inconsistency in the release — magnesium upper bound reported as both 97.0% and 97.7%.

Venari Minerals NL has reported high laboratory extractions of lithium, strontium and magnesium from its Red Mountain project in Nevada using hydrochloric acid, in an announcement released on 29 October 2026. The company (ASX:VMS) entered a trading halt on 28 October beforehand. The results support evaluating strontium and magnesium as by-products alongside lithium.

The Extraction Numbers

Test work was carried out by Kappes, Cassidy & Associates in Reno on six 5ft reverse circulation chip samples from holes RMRC001, RMRC002, RMRC003 and RMRC005, from depths ranging from 5–10ft to 330–335ft, leached at 10% solids using reagent-grade concentrated hydrochloric acid at 21°C and 60°C.

At 60°C, lithium extraction ranged from 94.8% to 99.1%, strontium from 93.2% to 98.7%, and magnesium from 94.3% to 97.0%. The highlights section gives 97.7% as the upper magnesium figure, an inconsistency the announcement does not explain. Acid consumption at 60°C was 297 to 393 kg per tonne. At ambient temperature the spread was much wider: lithium extraction ranged from 45.2% to 91.1%, strontium from 85.1% to 96.4% and magnesium from 52% to 85.3%.

Comparison With Sulphuric Acid

Venari compared these results with sulphuric acid tests on the same material reported in December 2024, which achieved 82% to 97% lithium extraction at 60°C while consuming 387 to 500 kg of acid per tonne and leaving 92% of strontium in the residue. The company argues hydrochloric acid dissolves all three metals in a single pass and can be made from salt, which it notes has a broad US supply chain — an assessment made by the company rather than independently verified.

The Resource

Red Mountain is 100% owned through Venari's subsidiary Needles Holdings Inc and sits on Bureau of Land Management claims in Nevada beside Route 6. The company cites an Inferred Mineral Resource, released on 6 October 2026, of 500Mt at 1,139 ppm lithium, 0.53% strontium carbonate equivalent and 2.4% magnesium at a 700 ppm lithium cut-off, containing an estimated 3.03Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent, 2.67Mt of strontium carbonate equivalent and 12.0Mt of magnesium. A higher-grade North zone at a 1,300 ppm cut-off totals 47.9Mt at 2,193 ppm lithium. The entire resource is in the Inferred category.

Limitations and Next Steps

These are bench-scale tests on a small number of samples. The release does not state acid strength or leach duration, and per-sample results appear only in charts. Extracting metals into solution is not the same as recovering saleable products, and acid consumption of several hundred kilograms per tonne is a significant cost consideration for any study. The next phase is to produce a lithium product from the hydrochloric acid leachate, then recover strontium and magnesium from the remaining solution. Oxalic acid leaching and roasting tests are also under way. A Scoping Study is targeted for the first quarter of 2027.