Lynas deal puts spotlight on Red Metal's simpler rare earths processing method
Lynas acquiring Meteoric Resources shows that simple room-temperature leaching works for rare earths. This could unlock Red Metal's Sybella deposit.
Lynas has agreed to buy Brazilian rare earths developer Meteoric Resources for about $970 million. The deal brings the Caldeira project into Lynas's portfolio.
Caldeira has ionic clay-hosted rare earths. These can be extracted through leaching at room temperature.
This is much simpler than hard-rock mining at Lynas's Mt Weld mine in Western Australia. The Lynas-Meteoric deal could spotlight other ASX-listed rare earths projects with similar traits.
Red Metal's giant Sybella project is near Mt Isa in Queensland. It has rare earths in granite that dissolve readily in weak acid at room temperature.
This makes it a candidate for heap-leach processing. The approach uses little acid and no high-temperature baking.
It could capture economies of scale at high throughput rates. Red Metal says Sybella could supply 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes of magnet rare earths oxides yearly for over 50 years.
- $970 million
- Lynas-Meteoric deal value
- Over 50 years
- Sybella reserve life
Why it mattersSimpler processing makes rare earths projects cheaper and faster to develop. This helps Australia reduce reliance on Chinese supply.
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