Key Highlights

•  North Stanmore was included in the Australian Critical Minerals Prospectus, a publication produced by Austrade.

•  The prospectus presents Australian critical minerals projects to international investors, financiers and potential offtake partners.

•  Inclusion does not involve government funding or an endorsement of project economics, and the announcement gave no funding, offtake, capital cost or timetable details.

Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) has had its North Stanmore heavy rare earths project included in the Australian Critical Minerals Prospectus, a publication produced by the federal trade and investment agency Austrade. The inclusion was reported on 27 October 2026.

The prospectus presents Australian critical minerals projects to international investors, financiers and potential offtake partners. Inclusion does not involve government funding or an endorsement of project economics, but it does place North Stanmore in front of an audience the government is actively courting as it seeks to diversify global supply chains for critical minerals.

The project

North Stanmore is located in the Cue region of Western Australia's Murchison and is 100% owned by Victory. The project is focused on the heavy rare earths dysprosium, terbium and yttrium, which are used in high-performance permanent magnets and a range of advanced technologies.

The prospectus lists the project at prefeasibility study (PFS) stage. Victory has completed the PFS, established a maiden ore reserve, been granted a mining lease and commissioned an operational pilot plant. The reported target markets for investment and offtake include the United States, Japan, Europe, India, South Korea and Vietnam.

Resource and processing

The project's mineral resource, estimated in August 2026 at a 300 parts per million total rare earth oxide (TREO) cut-off, totals 278.8 million tonnes at 483ppm TREO. It comprises 70.67 million tonnes in the measured category, 84.09 million tonnes in the indicated category and 124.04 million tonnes in the inferred category.

Within that, a higher-grade domain contains 53.34 million tonnes at 1,024ppm TREO, with heavy rare earth oxides accounting for 32.4% of the TREO content. The grade and tonnage of the maiden ore reserve were not provided.

Victory said the project does not require the complex high-temperature cracking commonly needed for conventional rare earth deposits. Instead, it said natural weathering of much of the orebody has produced mineralogy that allows a heavy rare earth-enriched concentrate to be produced through conventional beneficiation.

Chief executive Brendan Clark said North Stanmore "offers something particularly attractive in this environment", pointing to what he described as a straightforward mining and processing pathway.

Why it matters

Heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium are produced in small volumes globally, and supply has been dominated by China. Export controls and supply concerns have prompted governments in the United States, Europe, Japan and elsewhere to seek alternative sources, and Australia has positioned itself as a potential supplier through policy programmes and investment promotion.

For a company at PFS stage, the most significant hurdles are often financing and offtake. Inclusion in a government-backed investment prospectus may help Victory gain access to international investors and buyers, although any resulting agreements would need to be negotiated separately. Because such publications typically feature a range of projects, inclusion alone is unlikely to differentiate North Stanmore without continued technical and commercial progress.

Limitations and next steps

The overall resource grade of 483ppm TREO is low by the standards of many hard-rock rare earth deposits, so the economics are likely to depend heavily on the higher-grade domain, the heavy rare earth content, and the cost and recovery performance of the proposed beneficiation process. A large share of the resource is in the inferred category, which carries lower geological confidence.

The announcement did not provide details of funding arrangements, offtake agreements, capital cost estimates or a development timetable. Pilot-scale processing does not guarantee commercial-scale performance, and rare earth prices remain volatile and highly unpredictable.

Victory has not set out specific next steps in connection with the prospectus listing. Any progress towards financing, offtake or a definitive feasibility study would be expected to be disclosed separately to the market.