Mount Ridley identifies rare earths at Grass Patch Project

• Automated mineralogy confirmed rare earth elements are hosted in discrete phosphate minerals at the Grass Patch project.
• Shares in the mineral explorer traded unchanged following the publication of the study results.
• Testing is being fast-tracked to concentrate rare earths prior to Phase 1 metallurgical leaching work.

Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) has completed its first automated mineralogy study on material from its Grass Patch Project near Esperance.

Unlike standard clay-hosted deposits that rely on simple salt leaching, these rare earths occur within hard phosphate minerals.

Testing by AXT identified three distinct phosphate minerals hosting the rare earths across the sample.

The company stated that physically concentrating these minerals before leaching could reduce the material volume fed into metallurgical testwork.

Following the announcement, the Mount Ridley Mines share price was unchanged at $0.025.

The Grass Patch Complex sits roughly 25km north of the deep-water port of Esperance in Western Australia.

The project covers a large critical minerals system that also contains significant scandium resource deposits.