Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) secures CSIRO Co-Funding to advance scandium development opportunities
Mount Ridley Mines has received co-funding under the CSIRO Kick-Start program for a collaborative research project with CSIRO focused on assessing scandium applications in additive manufacturing alloys through the Lab22 additive manufacturing research facility.
Highlights
The CSIRO Kick-Start project has a total budget of $104,000, with CSIRO contributing up to $50,000 and Mount Ridley co-funding the balance.
The project is titled “Scandium Alloys for Additive Manufacturing: Stage 1” and will be conducted by CSIRO researchers from the Lab22 additive manufacturing research facility.
Stage 1 will define and inform a subsequent Stage 2 project focused on the development of scandium-based materials for additive manufacturing.
The project outcome will be a report that will become the intellectual property of Mount Ridley.
Mount Ridley holds a JORC (2012) compliant Inferred Mineral Resource at the Grass Patch Complex of 367.98Mt at 57.2ppm Sc containing approximately 18,555 tonnes of scandium metal.
Mount Ridley’s Stage 1 research program will examine scandium-containing alloy opportunities through a review of the patent landscape, identification of global suppliers of scandium metal, powders and wire, assessment of potential application areas, and review of emerging scandium extraction, processing and refining technologies using publicly available information.
The Grass Patch Complex in Western Australia hosts Mount Ridley’s scandium resource, with scandium mineralisation co-located with Heavy Rare Earth and Gallium resources within the same regolith profile.
The company is also undertaking a re-assay program on historical drill samples not previously tested for scandium content to assess the potential for future Mineral Resource growth.
Mount Ridley Managing Director and CEO Allister Caird said the collaboration represented the first step in the company’s downstream program.
“This is the first step in what we anticipate being a significant downstream program. We have a strong belief that scandium will play a major role in rapidly scaling industries such as aerospace, robotics and defence for which no suitable substitute exists in high performance alloy applications and we intend to stay ahead of it.”
The CSIRO Kick-Start program provides co-funding support to Australian companies undertaking collaborative research with CSIRO.
The Stage 1 project is designed to provide information to support future alloy development activities, with the resulting report to remain the intellectual property of Mount Ridley.
Mount Ridley’s collaboration with CSIRO will provide research into scandium alloy applications for additive manufacturing, with Stage 1 focused on establishing information for a potential subsequent project phase.
The company continues work across the Grass Patch Complex, including the assessment of historical drill samples through its scandium re-assay program.
The project adds a research component to Mount Ridley’s activities in scandium, Heavy Rare Earth and Gallium, with Stage 1 outcomes to inform the company’s future work in scandium-based materials development.