Highlights

• Venari Minerals NL has reported laboratory leach test results from its Red Mountain Lithium and Strategic Metals Project.

• Testing was carried out by Kappes, Cassidy and Associates in Reno on six reverse circulation chip samples from.

• At 60 degrees, HCl consumption was 297 to 393 kilograms per tonne, against 387 to 500 kilograms per.

• Venari says HCl delivered higher lithium extraction, lower reagent use and better strontium liberation than sulfuric acid, and.

Venari Minerals (ASX:VMS) — NL has reported laboratory leach test results from its Red Mountain Lithium and Strategic Metals Project in Nevada, USA. The tests used hydrochloric acid (HCl) on drill samples and are intended to inform a scoping study the company targets for the first quarter of 2027. The company holds the project through its subsidiary Needles Holdings Inc., on federal Bureau of Land Management claims.

What was tested

Testing was carried out by Kappes, Cassidy and Associates in Reno on six reverse circulation chip samples from four holes. The mineralisation is claystone-hosted lithium in lacustrine sediments of the Horse Camp Formation. Samples were pulverised and leached at about 10 per cent solids with reagent-grade concentrated acid, at 21 degrees Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius.

At 60 degrees, the company reports lithium extraction of 94.8 to 99.1 per cent, strontium of 93.2 to 98.7 per cent and magnesium of about 94 to 97 per cent. At ambient temperature, lithium ranged from 45.2 to 91.1 per cent, strontium from 85.1 to 96.4 per cent and magnesium from 52 to 85.3 per cent. Earlier sulfuric acid tests, reported in December 2024, gave lithium extraction of 82 to 97 per cent but negligible strontium, with about 92 per cent remaining in the residue.

At 60 degrees, HCl consumption was 297 to 393 kilograms per tonne, against 387 to 500 kilograms per tonne for sulfuric acid.

Venari says HCl delivered higher lithium extraction, lower reagent use and better strontium liberation than sulfuric acid, and expects lower operating cost and less neutralisation reagent. It also argues that HCl, made from salt, may have a more stable supply than sulfuric acid, which depends on sulfur. These are the company's views and have not been demonstrated at scale. The company says the results are expected to be positive for its scoping study.

Project background

The project has an Inferred Mineral Resource of 500 million tonnes at 1,139 parts per million lithium, using a 700 parts per million cut-off. That equates to 3.03 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, plus strontium and magnesium. A higher-grade northern zone is reported at 47.9 million tonnes at 2,193 parts per million lithium. The company previously reported producing 99.5 per cent purity battery-grade lithium carbonate from mineralised rock in April 2026. The site is next to Route 6 and about 20 kilometres from a 525 kV transmission line.

Limits of the results

These are leachability tests on a small sample set, not a demonstrated process. Only two temperatures were tested. No lithium product has yet been produced from the HCl leachate, and recovery of strontium and magnesium by-products from the residual solution is untested. The resource is Inferred, meaning lower geological confidence than Indicated or Measured categories.

Readers should also note inconsistencies in the document. The highlights give magnesium extraction at 60 degrees as up to 97.7 per cent, while the results text says 97.0 per cent. Two drill holes, RMRC002 and RMRC003, share identical collar coordinates, and the JORC table mentions a different laboratory from the one that performed the testing.

Next steps

The company plans to produce a lithium product from the HCl leachate, and to produce strontium (likely as carbonate) and magnesium (as chloride or hydroxide) from the residual solution. Oxalic acid leaching and roasting test work is continuing, and the company is in discussions with parties including direct lithium extraction providers. The scoping study is targeted for the first quarter of 2027, although the JORC table refers only to 2027. No funding, offtake or approvals are described in the release.