Key Highlights

  • A Selectro leach test on titanomagnetite feed returned vanadium recovery of 95.5%, alongside 48.6% titanium and 77.6% iron.
  • An Inferred Mineral Resource at Grass Patch of 946 million tonnes at 50.1 parts per million scandium was reported in August 2026.
  • Earlier tests achieved 92% aluminium recovery from bauxite and 95% gallium recovery from separate feeds.
  • The company has lodged patents for the Selectro process and says the Grass Patch resource is the largest publicly reported JORC scandium resource.

Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) is being watched for a laboratory process rather than a mine, because its Selectro leach technology has returned high recoveries of scandium, gallium, aluminium and vanadium from different feeds. The company has also lodged patents and upgraded a very large scandium resource, but it remains a pre-development explorer with no production.

 

An explorer with a processing idea

Mount Ridley Mines Limited has been listed on the ASX since September 2004 as ordinary shares, and the exchange describes it as a Mining explorer within Materials. Its Quarterly Report splits exploration spending between the Mount Ridley project and Weld Range West.

Its flagship is Grass Patch, a scandium and rare earths prospect where the company says the rare earths are hosted in phosphates. The second asset is Selectro, a proprietary leaching process that the company is trying to prove across several metals.

On 26 August 2026 the company reported an Inferred Mineral Resource at Grass Patch of 946 million tonnes at 50.1 parts per million scandium, using a 25 parts per million cut-off. That contains 47,357 tonnes of scandium, or 72,637 tonnes of scandium oxide, under the JORC 2012 code.

The estimate rests on 410 drill holes totalling 14,828 metres. The company describes it as the largest publicly reported JORC scandium resource, a claim readers should treat as the company's own. Inferred is the lowest confidence category, so further density testing is needed before parts of it can be upgraded.

Re-assays announced on 22 September 2026 identified shallow, high-grade scandium up to eight kilometres beyond the resource boundaries, but those results are not yet in the estimate.

 

What the leach tests show

In a Selectro test reported on 2 November 2026, a titanomagnetite feed supplied by a third party returned vanadium recovery of 95.5 per cent, alongside 48.6 per cent of titanium and 77.6 per cent of iron. The process avoided the high-temperature salt roast used in conventional processing, although the company has yet to assess any cost saving.

Earlier results included 92 per cent aluminium recovery from bauxite on 14 October 2026 and 95 per cent gallium recovery on 20 October 2026. In its latest test on Grass Patch ore, scandium recovery was 91.8 per cent at about half the earlier reagent dose, while gallium recovery fell from 55.8 per cent to 41.5 per cent.

A first provisional Patent application was lodged on 19 August 2026, and a second, covering industrial metals, followed on 15 October 2026. The company is also running a A$104,000 scandium alloy project under a CSIRO Kick-Start grant. Its August announcement lists continued engagement with Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore and Fraunhofer research organisations.

 

Cash and funding

Cash at 30 September 2026 was A$3.07 million, up from A$1.89 million at the start of the quarter. Operating outflows were A$792,000, including A$401,000 on exploration and evaluation.

A Placement of 60,606,100 shares at A$0.033 raised about A$2 million before costs and was issued on 11 September 2026. Directors committed a further A$100,000 on the same terms, subject to Shareholder approval.

The company calculated 3.87 quarters of funding, with no undrawn facilities, so further Capital raisings would be needed to sustain a longer testing and drilling programme.

 

Risks and milestones

Laboratory recoveries alone do not guarantee commercial viability. Reagent consumption, impurities, scale-up and processing Economics are all unproven, and the test feeds are small samples.

The company is discussing a scoping study with engineers for a Selectro demonstration plant and plans a larger bauxite test, flotation work on Grass Patch ore, and drilling of seven untested gravity targets over about 33 kilometres of strike. A chemist is due to start on 9 November 2026, and the Annual General Meeting is scheduled for 19 November 2026.