Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) lodges patent application for Selectro™ Process
Mount Ridley Mines has lodged a provisional patent application for its proprietary Selectro™ Process, a leach technology held by its subsidiary Mount Ridley Tech Pty Ltd.
The company’s in house leach technology was developed over more than a decade by Chief Technology Officer Chris Larder.
Highlights
Provisional patent application lodged for the Selectro™ Process, MRD’s proprietary leach technology.
Mount Ridley retains full ownership of the Selectro™ intellectual property held by Mount Ridley Tech Pty Ltd.
Selectro™ testwork results showed recoveries of up to 83% for HREE, 80% for scandium, 72% for LREE and 56% for gallium.
Gallium recovery of 56% was achieved through a single Selectro™ leach, compared with zero recovery from the HCl baseline under the same testwork conditions.
A bulk testwork program has commenced, including flotation and further Selectro™ Process optimisation.
The provisional patent application establishes a priority date for the Selectro™ Process and provides the company with a 12 month window to pursue patent protection in Australia and overseas.
Mount Ridley has confirmed full ownership of all intellectual property arising from the Selectro™ Process under its consulting agreement with Chris Larder dated 28 April 2026, with no third party retaining ownership or co ownership interest in the technology.
The application follows Selectro™ Process metallurgical testwork results, which demonstrated recoveries of up to 83% for HREE, 80% for scandium, 72.5% for LREE and 56% for gallium.
The Selectro™ Process more than doubled the average recovery of the company’s full critical mineral basket compared with the HCl baseline, with gallium recovery reaching 56% compared with zero recovery under the same HCl baseline testwork conditions.
The Selectro™ Process is a proprietary hydrometallurgical technology developed to recover multiple critical minerals through a single leach process.
The process incorporates lower cost reagents and reagent recycling through a closed loop system and is being developed to enable recovery of rare earth elements, scandium and gallium from a common feed stream.
Initial testwork on unbeneficiated Grass Patch material demonstrated recoveries across the company’s critical mineral suite and was completed without prior beneficiation or systematic process optimisation.
The company has initiated a larger scale testwork program incorporating flotation and further Selectro™ Process optimisation to further assess the process across both beneficiated and unbeneficiated feed.
The Grass Patch Project is located approximately 25 kilometres north of the deep water port of Esperance in Western Australia and hosts defined heavy rare earth element, scandium and gallium resources identified through 70,000 metres of historical drilling.
A majority of the project tenure is centred on the Grass Patch Complex, which is interpreted by the company to be the primary source of heavy rare earth enrichment identified across the project area.
Mount Ridley Managing Director and CEO Allister Caird commented:
“Having patent protection in place is an important step in safeguarding the incredible potential of the Selectro™ Process. It ensures we preserve the multiple pathways to commercialisation this process unlocks, whether through our own Grass Patch Project, third party licensing or a combination of both, while giving us a clear foundation to have more substantive conversations with third parties around scoping and test work, both here at Grass Patch and beyond it.”
The company’s next steps include advancing the bulk testwork program, including flotation and further Selectro™ Process optimisation, progressing international patent applications, and pursuing scoping study and third party engagement opportunities.
Mount Ridley is focused on the discovery and development of heavy rare earth elements, gallium and scandium across its Mount Ridley and Weld Range projects in Western Australia.